Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1111. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to Parliamentary Question No. 1088 of 5 March 2020, the factors which determine the allocation of educational welfare officers across the five regional areas; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4829/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The aims and objectives of the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS) are to ensure that every child attends school regularly and vindicate every child’s entitlement to a certain minimum education. Educational Welfare Officers (EWOs) work with families and children to overcome barriers to their school attendance, participation and retention; and work closely with schools, educational support services and other agencies to support school attendance and resolve attendance problems for the benefit of children and families.

Where a school principal has a concern in relation to a pupil’s school attendance and where the school has made all local efforts to resolve the problem a referral can be made to EWS.

When referrals are received by the EWS team they are screened by a Senior Educational Welfare Officer. All completed referrals are placed in priority order and are assigned to the EWO team accordingly. At any stage a principal can follow up with the EWS to ascertain the status of a referral.

EWOs are allocated to the 5 TESS Regions based on evidence and having considered a range of factors which include: the geographical size of a region, the number of schools in a region, the number of DEIS schools in a region, the number of referrals in a region over the previous three years, the complexity of the cases arising in the region and a range of other factors that impact demand.

The table below illustrates the 5 EWS regions and the staffing complement per region:

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1112. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to Parliamentary Question No. 1088 of 5 March 2020, the number of referrals made to the educational welfare service; and the number of cases pursued by the educational welfare officers in each regional area in each of the past five years. [4830/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The following tables detail the number of referrals made to the Educational Welfare Service (EWS) of the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS). It is important to note that EWS only became a referral-based service in the academic year 2016/2017 and as such relevant data is only available since that particular school year. The data is gathered on an academic year basis i.e. From September to June each year.

The total number Referrals Screened by Senior Educational Welfare Officer and accepted by the EWS during the reporting period.

Total number of new cases assigned to an Educational Welfare Officer in the reporting period: