Written answers

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Department of Education and Science

Education Welfare Service

9:00 pm

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 145: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if County Donegal has been allocated a second education welfare officer; if not, when she envisages the appointment taking place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6765/08]

Photo of Mary HanafinMary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) was established under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the Board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.

To discharge its responsibilities, the Board is developing a nationwide service on a continuing basis that is accessible to schools, parents/guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. For this purpose, Educational Welfare Officers (EWOs) have been appointed and deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare-focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the Board's functions locally.

I have been informed by the Board that recruitment for an additional 15 staff which were allocated to the NEWB during 2007 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 EWO's and 72 EWO's. The financial allocation to the Board in 2008 is €10.119 million. These extra resources will continue to strengthen the NEWB to deliver services locally and contribute to improving the coverage in respect of those services provided by the Board.

In respect of the Deputy's specific question relating to Co.Donegal, the Board currently has the services of one Educational Welfare Officer in the county. As I informed the deputy in reply to a Parliamentary Question which he tabled last November, it is still the Board's intention to deploy another Welfare Officer in Co. Donegal when the additional 15 staff, referred to earlier, have been appointed. The ongoing allocation of posts will continue to be evaluated by the Board 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. This approach aims to develop the delivery of services in a cohesive way and ensure that optimum use is made of the resources deployed. I will be keeping the issue of the NEWB's staffing under review in light of the rollout of services, the scope for integrated working and any proposals that the Board may put to me in relation to clearly identified priority needs.

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