Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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407. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if additional training for teachers on student mental health and trauma-informed approaches will be introduced under the next school wellbeing strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25136/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of all children including those who may have experienced trauma.

A dedicated wellbeing portal can be accessed via ‘Wellbeing in Education’ on Gov.ie, bringing together all the wellbeing and mental health supports and resources that have been developed by the Department and the Department’s support services.

There are many professional learning opportunities available to support teachers and school leaders to engage with aspects of wellbeing. Each academic year the Department of Education wellbeing office updates a . This document provides an overview of the Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) opportunities provided by the Department of Education (DE), its agencies, support services, other Government Departments and their agencies and includes information on how to access these supports.

NEPS has engaged in extensive national training of school staff in the area of trauma-informed practice and have developed a new eLearning course for school staff - ‘Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach: The Stress Factor - Getting the Balance Right’ which looks at the sources and impact of stress on children and young people including trauma and adverse experiences. It demonstrates how to create environments to reduce stress and focuses on developing skills that all children and young people need to better manage in school.

My Department in partnership with Jigsaw have recently announced to school leaders details of Neart: the new national programme of mental health and wellbeing resources and training for post-primary schools. The new programme complements the supports already available in schools such as the provision of guidance counselling and the work of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), as well as other existing wellbeing programmes and initiatives including Student Support Team training.

The NEART programme provides supports to students, parents and school staff;

Supports for school staff will:

- build capacity of staff to promote whole school approaches to wellbeing and mental health awareness;

- enhance training and support for Student Support Teams to raise awareness of positive mental health and wellbeing;

- provide e-learning opportunities for staff on mental health and wellbeing promotion;

- provide wellbeing and self-care webinars and e-learning courses for school staff.

The Neart webpage - jigsaw.ie/neart/ - provides all the relevant information schools require about the programme of supports and what’s on offer throughout 2025.

The Department of Education’s Wellbeing Office has initiated a Policy and Implementation Plan Review to plan for the next school wellbeing strategy once the current implementation Plan completes in 2025.

In 2025 my Department’s Wellbeing Office will initiate a broader stakeholder engagement process to consult on a successor Wellbeing in Education Policy and Implementation Plan post 2025 which will inform the priorities when we produce an updated strategy incorporating the continued, adapted, or new areas of agreed focus in educational wellbeing.