Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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318. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of expanding the in-school counselling pilot to include five more schools. [42410/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of all children. In June 2023 I launched a €5 million pilot of counselling and well-being supports in primary schools in selected counties. This Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot is in addition to the range of mental health and well-being supports already being provided by my Department and the excellent work already happening in schools in relation to well-being promotion. These supports include Cineáltas, the Department's Action Plan on Bullying, support from Oide (the teacher professional learning service) and support for schools from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS). These services and supports supplement the well-being and mental health supports and services provided by the HSE throughout the country for primary school aged children.

The Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot has two strands. Strand 1 sees direct counselling supports being provided to primary schools for the first time. My Department has set up county panels of pre-approved private counsellors to provide one-to-one counselling in primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. Participating schools have been allocated blocks of up to six counselling sessions (per child) for a small number of children in the school. The sessions are book-ended by a pre and post session meeting with parents/legal guardians and relevant school staff. Parents and school staff are seen as key agents of change in a child’s life and are part of the intervention with the child and will be guided and encouraged to support the child at home and at school on an ongoing basis.

In September 2024, my Department issued the new allocations to schools for the 2024/2025 school year. For this school year, 1,015 blocks of counselling have been allocated to schools across the pilot counties, which will provide a block of counselling to 1,015 children in these counties. The cost of a block of counselling, which is 8 sessions in total per individual child is €640. The allocation of blocks of counselling is based on school population and each of the participating schools have received an allocation of between one to seven blocks of counselling, depending on school size.

Strand 2 of the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot sees the establishment of Education Well-being Teams to support schools in cluster areas in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. There are currently 19 Education Well-being Practitioners are working under the direction and supervision of lead NEPS psychologists. The Well-being Team is an innovative approach to provide enhanced in-school support. The Well-being Practitioners support the schools to strengthen their whole school preventative approach to promoting well-being and mental health, in line with the Department Well-being Policy. They provide psycho-educational support for parents, school staff and pupils and preventative evidence-based interventions to prevent mild and emerging social and emotional difficulties.

Last week, I announced the details of a grant scheme to augment the supports being provided by Education Well-being Teams on a pilot basis in school clusters in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. All these schools are set to receive a once-off payment of €2,000 to promote and support well-being-focused initiatives among their school communities in the 2024/2025 school year. Schools taking part in Strand Two of this pilot programme will receive the €2,000 grant funding directly, along with guidance for gathering the views of pupils and parents, so that they can develop strategies and measures which help them to further bring about positive changes in the well-being of children, parents and wider school communities.

A dedicated webpage with information for parents, information for counsellors and information for schools is also available: www.gov.ie/en/publication/61be8-counselling-in-primary-schools-pilot-cps-p-2023-2025/.

Through this existing pilot and subsequent evaluation we are confident that we will gather valuable learning that will inform future policy and provision in this area.