Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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89. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will resolve an issue affecting CPD for guidance counsellors in Cork (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22131/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Professional Support (Guidance Counselling Supervision) Programme provides all guidance counsellors employed in Department of Education funded post primary schools with five two-hour sessions of counselling supervision support in each academic year by a professionally qualified Supervisor. This provides a forum for Guidance Counsellors to meet their peers and discuss the issues they are facing. This Scheme is funded by the Department of Education, administered by Monaghan Education Support Centre and monitored and overseen by the National Steering Committee for Guidance Counselling Supervision (Steering Committee). Supervision sessions are organised by the IGC Branch organiser in each region.

The Steering Committee recently decided to standardise the day for supervision to Tuesday afternoon for all regions from September 2024 on. This was communicated to the IGC in February 2023. The reason for this decision, as outlined in the letter sent to the IGC, was concern about the impact on students of having no access to guidance counselling available either side of the weekend. This may lead to a situation where a student presenting with an issue of concern on a Friday will be required to wait until Monday at the earliest to receive appropriate support from a qualified guidance counsellor. This point has been reinforced by the responses to a survey of post primary principals in the regions where supervision is not currently scheduled on a Tuesday. 80% of respondents indicated that it is essential for students to have access to a guidance counsellor for the full day on Monday and Friday (this survey has been carried out by the NAPD on behalf of the Steering Committee and figures quoted represent the response to date of 50% of schools surveyed).

75% of respondents also indicated that they would have no issue with facilitating the release of their Guidance Counsellor on a Tuesday for supervision five times a year.

The Steering Committee are aware of the issues these changes may cause in relation to timetabling in schools, sourcing of supervisors and availability of premises. In order to ease the move to a Tuesday afternoon they have allowed an 18 month lead in time for these changes to be implemented.