Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

234. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 7 of 29 May 2014, in view of the fact that guidance and counselling is a whole school responsibility, if he is therefore stating that he is satisfied for any member of teaching staff to engage in counselling without holding any professional counselling qualification and without any professional supervision of this work by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25495/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Guidance and counselling are a whole-school responsibility, with guidance counsellors playing their part within an overall team approach. The representative organisations for school principals and school management have developed a framework that assists schools on how best to manage the provision of guidance from within their staffing allocation. Wherever possible, group work and class-based activity should be used to maximise the amount of time available for those pupils who are most in need of one-to-one support. In February my Department published a guide to developing student support teams in post-primary schools. This is an important resource for schools in promoting and protecting students' well-being and an aid to establishing a team or reviewing an existing team.Guidance counsellors have two distinct functions. The first is general career guidance and guidance on the educational opportunities a child or young person might pursue, while the second involves support for students' well-being. The principal and leadership of a school have the best knowledge and experience to determine how exactly guidance resources and teaching resources should be allocated. I do not subscribe to the assertion that teachers, as highly trained individuals and responsible adults operating in a school environment, do not have the professional capacity or knowledge to deal with a significant number of the issues that arise in their classrooms on a daily basis.