Written answers

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Department of Education and Science

Home-School Liaison Scheme

10:00 pm

Photo of Mary O'RourkeMary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 168: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will review the case of a person (details supplied) in County Longford. [23939/09]

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Home School Community Liaison coordinator posts are provided on a full time or shared basis between schools. Due to the nature of the work of HSCL coordinators, which focuses directly on the salient adults in children's educational lives, coordinators must be deployed to do full-time liaison duties only to avoid any potential conflict of interest. The role also requires the flexibility to be available to families, for home visitation, attending meetings and inservice and undertaking school staff development without having the restrictions of a timetable.

Following a full review of the allocation of HSCL posts and clustering arrangements under DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunities in Schools), the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion in 2008, HSCL posts are allocated to schools on the basis of their levels of disadvantage and enrolment, having regard to geographic proximity or 'association' (where children from the same family attend different schools. ie boys and girls or primary and post primary aged siblings). In a small number of cases, coordinators may be shared between schools that do not have family links, however, this is to ensure that the coordinators are deployed to do home school community liaison duties only.

The coordinator to which the Deputy refers is employed as a permanent whole time teacher by a Vocational Education Committee as a full time HSCL coordinator. Following the 2008 HSCL review, this school is no longer entitled to a full HSCL post, based on its size and level of disadvantage. The VEC have been advised that the HSCL post should now be shared between two of its schools and it is a matter for the VEC to deploy this teacher in accordance with the terms of her contract with the VEC.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.