Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 457: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the most recent figures on the staff numbers in the National Education Welfare Board; her plans, with timescale, to bring this vital service up to its full complement. [4642/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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This government is determined to do all that is possible to ensure that every child gets all the opportunities and support they need to enable them to achieve their potential and participate fully in education. Through increased investment and improved services we are determined to optimise access, participation and educational outcomes at every level of the system for disadvantaged groups. The programme for government is committed to providing these educational supports to the most vulnerable sections of our society.

In addition to the programme for government, the partnership agreement "Towards 2016" includes provision for an additional 100 posts in total for the NEWB and the National Educational Psychological Service by 2009. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that under the 1st Phase of the agreement, an additional 15 staff were allocated to the NEWB during 2007. I have been informed by the Board that the recruitment process is ongoing and will be finalised shortly. This allocation brings the current authorised staffing of the Board to 109 posts of which 90 are working directly in the service delivery area. The staffing complement is comprised of 19 HQ and support staff, 5 Regional Managers, 13 Senior EWOs and 72 EWOs. The financial allocation to the Board in 2008 is 10.119 million.

The recruitment of these extra staff to the NEWB will continue to strengthen local delivery and contribute to improving the coverage in respect of services provided by the Board. The ongoing allocation of posts will continue to be evaluated in light of operational experience and identified need. It must be remembered also that the service provided by the NEWB is just one aspect of the comprehensive framework that this Government has put in place to support schools, families and young people themselves. In this regard, extra supports targeted at young people in disadvantaged areas include both educational initiatives such as intensive literacy programmes and the provision of breakfast and homework clubs.

In fact, in addition to the NEWB, there are currently in excess of 620 staff within the education sector in education disadvantage programmes of which over 130 are additional posts allocated under DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) the action plan for educational inclusion which provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). The School Completion Programme (SCP) is a preventative measure designed to combat issues of poor attendance and early school leaving. School attendance is a central objective of SCP with targeted interventions for children at risk of early school leaving through a variety of extra supports aimed at encouraging them to stay in school. These supports cover both educational and non-educational interventions and are provided during and outside of school time. The Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL) works to involve parents in their children's education which is a crucial component in convincing young people of the value of education. Work is ongoing to develop appropriate protocols for all agencies and services to work together in collaboration and to ensure that optimum use is made of the resources deployed.

I will be keeping the issue of resources for the NEWB under review in light of the roll-out of services, the scope for integrated working and any proposals that the Board may put to me in relation to clearly identified priority needs.