Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 686: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of staff employed by the National Educational Welfare Board; if she will provide a breakdown of responsibilities of those employed by the NEWB; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31197/10]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 687: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of students and families that the National Educational Welfare Board engaged with during the 2009-2010 school year; if she will provide the level of absenteeism of the students involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31198/10]

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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 686 and 687 together.

The Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, established the National Educational Welfare Board, NEWB, with statutory responsibility to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education. The Act provides a comprehensive framework for promoting regular school attendance and the adoption of a welfare based approach to tackling the underlying causes of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognized school or receives a certain minimum education.

The board has an authorised staffing complement of 109 posts. Currently 100 posts are filled. The breakdown of grades and responsibilities is shown in the table.

In May 2009 I announced plans to extend the remit of the board with effect from September 2009. The extended remit brings together the Visiting Teacher Service for Travellers (VTST), the Home School Community Liaison Service (HSCL) and the School Completion Programme (SCP) as well as the National Educational Welfare Service (EWS) under one common management team. The underlying rationale for this new single strategic approach, acknowledging and utilising the combined strengths and capacities of the four services, is to deliver better outcomes for children, families and schools. Combining these four services to deliver a composite service at national, regional and local levels is a positive development and one that will in time realise significant benefits. The board is charged with the development of a single strategic approach to delivery of services, reflecting equally the nature and strengths of each of the services. My Department will continue to work closely with the board on the development of this new approach.

Since its establishment the board has carried out research aimed at increasing awareness around the underlying causes which impact negatively on attendance in school. To support and advise families the NEWB has issued leaflets to parents, run public awareness campaigns to raise the profile of school attendance and operates an Education Helpline to provide information on attendance and related matters. Guidelines for Developing School Codes of Behaviour, which were issued to all schools in 2008, is a valuable tool for schools to assist them put in place strategies to deal with poor behaviour and other underlying causes of poor attendance.

The board's network of Educational Welfare Officers (EWOs) is the means by which the board delivers on its statutory remit to ensure that each child attends and benefits from education. The board has a range of functions and powers to intervene at different levels to vindicate a child's right to an education. Educational welfare officers work closely with the family, the school and other support services to address the particular issues for each child. The needs of children can vary considerably from those who are not attending school to those for whom there is no school place, while in other cases, placement in an alternative education programme like Youthreach may be more appropriate.

Each year the National Educational Welfare Board works with between 8,000 and 10,000 children and their families who have been reported as having attendance or school placement difficulties or who have been expelled from school. In the 2009-2010 school year, the board worked intensively with 4,000 cases involving children and their families who have been reported as having serious educational welfare problems. In addition, the board worked with between 4,000-6,000 children and their families where a less intensive involvement was required to resolve the barriers to their attendance issues.

As regards level of absenteeism, recently published figures from the board's analysis of school attendance data in primary and post-primary schools 2006-07 and 2007-08 report shows that the percentage of student days lost through absence has remained stable over the last five years. Over 57,000 students miss school each day, consisting of approximately 31,500 primary and 26,000 post-primary students. This is a loss of 12 school days per student per year in primary school and 13 days per year in post-primary school. About 12% of primary school students (58,000) and 17% of post-primary students (57,000) were absent for 20 days or more during the school year 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. However, there were considerable differences between schools. Some schools will have had no pupils absent for twenty or more days while others will have more than one fifth (20%) of pupils missing this number of days. The report can be downloaded from the NEWB website at www.newb.ie

NEWB Breakdown of current staff and responsibilities – 8th July 2010