Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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267. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will address concerns raised by a number of parents with respect to the inappropriate targeting of children by commercial skin product companies with products known to irritate children’s skin; if she will engage with an organisation (details supplied) in an effort to explore how it may assist in implementing an awareness programme in schools to educate young girls in particular about their use; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4080/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Schools have a role to play in supporting their students to develop the key skills and knowledge to enable them to make informed choices in different aspects of their lives. This is mainly done through the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) programme, which is a mandatory part of the Primary and Junior Cycle curriculum. The SPHE specification provides vital opportunities for the development of children’s wellbeing in the physical, social, emotional and intellectual domains.

As part of the redevelopment of SPHE/RSE curricula, in line with the Programme for Government, a draft Primary Wellbeing specification, which encompasses SPHE and PE, was open for public consultation last year, and a report on this consultation was published last December. It is intended that the curriculum specification will be introduced into schools in the 2025/2026 school year. The draft specification outlines that SPHE fosters knowledge, skills, dispositions, attitudes and values crucial for developing children’s holistic wellbeing. It cultivates self-awareness, resilience, and a positive sense of self. The learning outcomes of the Health Education strand include that children should be able to ‘demonstrate an awareness of how to nurture their wellbeing by considering positive choices in areas such as food, hygiene, sleep, rest, and meaningful physical activity’ and ‘to demonstrate knowledge of the importance of seeking permission and following safety rules when dealing with substances and medicines'.

Following an extensive period of consultation, an updated specification for Junior Cycle was introduced in schools for all first years in September 2023. The ‘Making Healthy Choices’ strand of the specifications includes among its learning outcomes that students should be able to ‘consider the multifaceted nature of health and wellbeing, and evaluate what being healthy might look like for different adolescents, including how food, physical activity, sleep/rest and hygiene contribute to health and wellbeing’, and to ‘demonstrate skills and strategies to help make informed choices that support health and wellbeing and apply them in real-life situations’.

An updated Senior Cycle specification was approved and published in September 2024. Schools have until September 2027 to introduce the specification for students entering fifth year of the Leaving Certificate Established programme, to accommodate the necessary planning and preparatory work. The learning outcomes of the ‘Health and Wellbeing’ strand of the specification include that students should be able to ‘explore the determinants of good health’ and to ‘investigate ways a person can influence their holistic health, including physical activity, food, sleep, social connections, positive self-image and connecting with nature, and discuss how these are related’.

In relation to outside speakers, the Department provides clear guidance to schools on the engagement of outside speakers and on the use of external resources to assist in delivering the curriculum. These guidelines are most recently outlined in updated circular 0042/2018 for primary schools and 0043/2018 for post primary schools. While the circulars make specific references to the Wellbeing area of the curriculum, the guidance should apply in general in relation to external speakers or resources.

Decisions on which programmes and initiatives, if any, schools participate in are taken at school level.

A school’s principal and Board of Management approve all external facilitators, and parents and guardians are to be made aware in advance of the content of the programme.