Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware I have secured funding in Budget 2023 and 2024 to pilot for the first time the provision of direct counselling and wellbeing supports in almost 650 primary schools across the country. This complements the excellent work that schools already undertake in respect of wellbeing, as well as other services provided by the state, such as the National Educational Psychologists Service and by the HSE.

The Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot 2023-25 (CPS-P) includes two Strands. Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support a small number of children in all primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of a new type of support to schools from Education Wellbeing Teams and the introduction of Education Wellbeing Practitioners to support clusters of schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16.

A breakdown by county of the number of schools that can avail of supports to date, under the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot 2023-25 (CPS-P) is set out below.

*There are eight counselling sessions in each block

Under Strand 1, NEPS on behalf of my Department have established panels of counsellors for the seven pilot counties. There are currently 29 counsellors on panels across these seven counties. This is below the anticipated number of counsellors that we expected to apply to work on the pilot. NEPS continue to accept and process applications from counsellors on an ongoing basis. The six accrediting bodies for counsellors who have been supporting this work, have contacted their membership in order to encourage recruitment of additional counsellors to the panels.

NEPS on behalf of the Department of Education progressed the first phase of the pilot in November 2023, when a letter was sent to the first number of schools in Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, and Tipperary advising them of their allocation of blocks of counselling sessions for children. In the first instance an allocation of blocks of counselling was given to the larger schools in selected counties.

NEPS psychologist made contact with all the schools that were allocated blocks of counselling to agree with the school, the pupils to prioritise for counselling and a suggested counsellor to contact from the panel, based on location and counsellor’s availability. Schools then commissioned the counsellors directly to provide the service, which children in a number of schools have already benefitted from. Blocks with eight counselling sessions in each block, were allocated to 246 of schools in the pilot counties. We are looking at the next allocation to schools, which includes an allocation to smaller schools in the pilot counties

Guidelines for Schools have been provided to support schools in the implementation of Strand 1 of the pilot. A dedicated webpage with information for parents, information for counsellors and information for schools is also available on gov.ie.