Written answers
Wednesday, 6 May 2015
Department of Education and Skills
School Discipline
Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
447. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the guidelines her Department issued on the use of face-down prone restraints in primary or secondary level schools, including schools that service special educational needs in particular; her views that the use of these restraints pose a risk to the health, well-being, or life of the children who this form of restraint is used upon; if her Department records the incidenced of the use of such a restraint in each school and for each pupil; if such a record is kept, if she will provide the number of times this restraint was used in primary or secondary level schools, detailed separately, in each month of 2014; the average number of times it was used, per pupil, in primary and secondary schools, detailed separately, in each month of 2014; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17230/15]
Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
I wish to advise the Deputy that the well-being and safety of children should be at the centre of all policy and practices in schools.
The Board of Management of each school is responsible for the care and safety of all of the pupils in their school and is required to prepare a code of behaviour in accordance with Section 23 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.
Responsibility for the management of behaviour in schools is therefore a matter for individual schools, and as such, my Department does not hold records in relation to individual behavioural incidents in schools.
Schools may seek advice from their local National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) psychologist, from their NCSE Special Educational Needs Organiser, or from the National Behavioural Support Services, as to how children with behavioural needs can best be supported in school.
Published guidelines which are available to schools include:Supporting Students with Behavioural, Emotional, and Social difficulties, which is available on the Department's website www.education.ie; the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) guidelines for schools on Developing a Code of Behaviour and the National Educational Psychological Services document Behavioural Emotional and Social Difficulties - a Continuum of Support: Guidelines for Teachers.
My Department, through the Special Education Support Service (SESS), provides continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers working with students with special educational needs, including training for teachers in the area of Challenging Behaviour.
In acknowledging the need for clearer guidance to Schools on the use of physical restraint/intervention, my Department is currently examining the issue with a view to developing guidelines for schools.
Where a parent, or any other person, has concerns about the care or safety of a child in school they should report these concerns to the Board of Management of the school in the first instance.
Where a parent or other person has a concern about the welfare or protection of a child in a school they may report the matter as a child protection concern to the HSE or to the Department of Education and Skills who will then report any child protection complaint in accordance with my Departments procedures.
No comments