Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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530. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding is available to assist schools to pay for the delivery of programmes on positive mental health and emotional health, given the extent of such issues among adolescents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43983/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department is strongly supportive of the promotion of positive mental health awareness in both primary and post-primary schools and provides support and resources in this area. The Department adopts a holistic and integrated approach to supporting the work of schools in promoting positive mental health and to supporting those with a broad range of problems, behavioural emotional and social.

The process spans the curriculum in schools, whole-school ethos, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, student support and pastoral care and the provision of professional development for teachers. It also involves other supports such as educational psychological services and guidance and counselling services, and the interface with other agencies, both nationally and locally.

Schools are assisted by Well-Being in Post-Primary Schools: Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2012), which was developed to implement Action 2.1 of Reach Out: the National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention 2005-2014 (HSE, 2005).

The Guidelines are for all members of the school community, boards of management and in-school management teams who play a central leadership role in mental health promotion. They are also useful for parents' associations, student councils, health and other personnel who are seeking an understanding of how to work in and with schools.

It is also important that this message is conveyed to pupils at an early age. To this end, Wellbeing Guidelines for Primary Schools have been recently produced by my Department in conjunction with the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive. The guidelines are informed by consultation with key Education and Health partners and by the findings of current research. They provide practical guidance to schools on how they can promote mental health and well-being in an integrated school-wide way and they also provide evidence-based advice on how to support young people who may be at risk of suicidal behaviour.

The Guidelines build on the significant work already taking place in primary schools, including through the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum, the whole-school guidance plan, the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) continuum of support model and the HSE, Health Promoting Schools Process. Information is also provided on how to access support from the SPHE Support Service and other external agencies and support services.

The new Framework for Junior Cycle (2015) also places a clear emphasis on overall student health and well-being. This Framework is underpinned by eight principles, one of which is "Well-being". It also has eight key skills which are to be embedded in every new Junior Cycle subject and short course including the key skills of "Managing Myself" and "Staying Well". In addition, the 24 'Statements of Learning' that a student should experience during their Junior Cycle programme involve the student taking action to safeguard and promote their own well-being and that of others.

One of the innovative features of the Junior Cycle Framework is the introduction of short courses that schools can choose to implement. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has developed a new short course in SPHE, which may be delivered for certification purposes and will involve an increase in the time allocation for SPHE at Junior Cycle up to 100 hours over the three year cycle. The new short course is now available to implement in post-primary schools, should they wish to do so, as part of their Junior Cycle programme. It includes strands such as "Minding Myself and Others" and "My Mental Health", and deals with issues such as mental health and mental ill-health, dealing with tough times, loss and bereavement.

My Department is also working with the Department of Health to promote participation by primary and post-primary schools in the 'Health Promoting Schools' initiative, which is supported by the Department of Health. This European-wide programme aims to strengthen schools' capacity to be a healthy setting for learning and working by focusing at whole-school level on all the conditions that affect health and well-being.