James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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343. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to provide teachers and SNAs with mental health training; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54653/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department promotes a comprehensive and whole-school approach in schools to the promotion of positive mental health focusing on the entire school community, including teachers and SNAs, as well as groups and individual young people with identified need.  This spans the curriculum in schools, whole-school ethos, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, student support and pastoral care, guidance counselling and the provision of professional development for teachers. It also involves accessing other supports such as educational psychology services.  Additionally, schools engage in a wide range of sport and cultural activities which provide an important opportunity for students to experience success and personal growth. The whole school staff shares responsibility for general student wellbeing.  

All primary initial teacher education programmes include psychology of education, sociology of education and curricular studies including the implementation of the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum which is taught at all class levels. The SPHE curriculum provides particular opportunities to foster the personal development, wellbeing, and social and emotional health of the individual child.

The Wellbeing in Post Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2013) and Wellbeing in Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion (2015) provide a Framework for Schools to present in an integrated way the existing elements of good practice to promote positive mental health, and direct then to new practices as appropriate. They provide clear information for schools and for agencies supporting schools on how to address issues of mental health promotion.

Professional development training and supports are provided by my Department to support teachers in the promotion of Wellbeing and in addressing and dealing with mental health issues. These supports cover a continuum: from whole-school and classroom level, to support for some children and support for a few children. Continuing professional development is provided to primary and post-primary schools through the following services and supports:

- The National Educational Psychological  Service (NEPS) 

- Guidance Counselling service/provision 

- The National Council for Special Education Support Service (NCSE)

- Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST)

- Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT).

Supports are also provided through Association of Teachers’ Education Centres in Ireland (ATECI) summer courses, Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence (Féilte), Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) and Centre for School Leadership.

A key theme of my Department’s Action Plan for Education 2016-2019 is the promotion of Wellbeing, with a number of objective and proposed actions specifically targeting the promotion of wellbeing in our school communities. These include:

- Publishing a Wellbeing Policy Statement in 2018 and commencing, as resources permit, a national programme to support all schools to implement the national Wellbeing in Post Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention (2013) and Wellbeing in Primary Schools Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion (2015)

- Implementing the new Junior Certificate area of learning entitled Wellbeing

- Extending Pupil Resilience and Teacher Classroom Management Programmes to all DEIS schools

- Increasing the capacity of NEPS by 65 educational psychologists to deliver an enhanced educational psychological service to schools

- Enhancing Guidance Counselling at second level

- Working closely with the Department of Health and others departments on the National Task Force on Youth Mental Healt

- Support of wellbeing initiatives to ensure that mental resilience and personal wellbeing are integral parts of the education and training system.