Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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856. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to fund play therapists, including play therapists through school completion programme. [59692/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Education plays an important role in supporting the wellbeing and mental health of our children and young people and is currently funding a range of initiatives and supports in this area. In June 2023, the Department of Education launched a pilot of counselling and wellbeing supports in primary schools in selected counties. The pilot includes two strands and works to support children’s wellbeing and mental health in schools.

Strand 1 sees direct counselling supports being provided to primary schools for the first time. My Department set up county panels of pre-approved private counsellors providing one-to-one counselling in primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. To date, 46 counsellors have been recruited across the seven pilot counties. In October 2024, my Department announced the extension of Strand 1 of the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot to 61 urban DEIS primary schools in Tallaght, Clondalkin, Finglas, Ballymun and Darndale. The schools that will now be included in the pilot have been identified by the Department of Education as supporting children from areas with some of the highest levels of disadvantage in the State. There are currently 9 counsellors on the panel for these areas.

Play therapy is one of the modalities used by several of the counsellors included on the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot panel, alongside counsellors using other approaches. Some of these counsellors have indeed trained in play therapy at master’s level and utilise their training in the current role. Counsellors are also required to have had experience of working with children and have attended supervision during their work with children.

As there is no single recognised counselling qualification and no national regulatory body for counselling in Ireland at this point in time, the Department of Education and Youth initially liaised with three main accrediting bodies for counsellors in Ireland; the Irish Association of Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapists in Ireland (IAHIP); the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (IACP) and the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) in relation to supporting the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot. The Department of Education and Youth have also liaised with additional accredited bodies including play therapists and having considered the qualifications, training and experience of these additional bodies, it was agreed to extend the eligibility criteria to members of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP), members of the Irish Association of Play Therapy & Psychotherapy who are psychotherapists with a specialisation in play therapy (IAPTP) and members of the Association of Child Art Psychotherapists (ACAP), who are psychotherapists with a specialisation in art therapy.

We believe we are doing this by ensuring that the counsellors have appropriate training, skills and competencies to engage ethically, professionally and effectively with this age group and that the counsellors operate and adhere to the Code of Ethics of their relevant accrediting body.

The School Completion Programme (SCP) is a targeted programme of support for primary and post-primary children and young people who have been identified as potentially at risk of early school leaving or who are out of school and have not successfully transferred to an alternative learning site or into employment. SCP aims to retain a young person to completion of the leaving certificate, equivalent qualification or suitable level of educational attainment which enables them to transition into further education, training or employment.

SCP delivers a range of local interventions in disadvantaged communities which support the retention of young people in education. These interventions take place both in-school, out of school, after-school and during the holiday periods.

The programme enables local communities to develop tailored strategies to maximise participation levels of those at risk of early school leaving in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people of school-going age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes.

SCP Projects operate under the management and direction of a Local Management Committee (LMC). The LMC is responsible for the governance of the project, including the use of project resources and accountability for public funds. SCP projects may spend up to €5,000 per annum on the provision of counselling or therapeutic supports for emergency or crisis situations.