Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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354. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing trauma-informed care training to teachers in DEIS schools and then an overall cost for all teachers. [31579/25]

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.

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has engaged in extensive national training of school staff in the area of trauma-informed practice and have developed a 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. NEPS psychologists are available to support schools implement trauma informed approaches in school following participation on the training. As a follow up to the elearning, NEPS will deliver a new live training called Understanding Trauma- Using a Trauma Informed Approach in Schools. This training builds on the learnings from e-Learning course by: further exploring the relationship between stress and trauma; looking at some contributary factors to trauma; Looking at how neuroscience theory and research has informed understanding of the impact of trauma; guiding schools to establish a trauma informed approach, providing practical school-based trauma-informed approaches to promote safety and connection in schools. A new standalone Trauma Informed Practice resource for schools will also be available in the autumn for schools to use. Training is provided as part of the NEPS service with no cost to schools.

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 and Youth updates a Directory of Wellbeing Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) for teachers. This document provides an overview of the Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) opportunities provided by the Department, its agencies, support services, other Government Departments and their agencies and includes information on how to access these supports.

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.

As part of this programme of work Jigsaw and NEPS have co delivered trauma informed training to teachers this term. The Neart webpage https://jigsaw.ie/neart/ provides all the relevant information schools require about the programme of supports and what’s on offer throughout 2025.

The details of the DEIS plus scheme are currently in development. The process will be evidence-informed, using available data, and focused on delivering the Programme for Government commitment to support schools with the highest levels of educational disadvantage. The scheme will be part of the department’s work to continually improve how we resource schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS, to support children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage.