Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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262. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to support schools in the southwest inner city with mental health supports similar to the programme in the northeast inner city. [62403/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The area of wellbeing and the promotion of positive mental health is a priority for the Department of Education and Youth. This includes promoting emotional wellbeing and resilience and positive coping skills, which support children and young people to manage the complexities of modern life.

The department’s approach to supporting wellbeing and mental health is set out in its Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice which can be found at the following link and informs the department’s extensive and ongoing work in the area of student wellbeing. The departments approach is founded on research and best international practice of how schools can best support the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. The approach proposed is a whole school and preventative approach which has multiple components that include:

- Providing children and young people with opportunities to build core social and emotional skills and competencies

- Providing children and young people with opportunities to experience supportive relationships within the school setting and to learn through those relationships

- Providing children and young people with opportunities to be part of a school environment and culture that feels both physically and psychologically safe

- Schools are encouraged to develop policies that create an environment in which children and young people feel a sense of belonging and connectedness, in which they feel their voice is heard, and they feel supported.

- Schools are encouraged to use a reflective, school self-evaluation approach to identify and prioritise the needs of its own school community in relation to the promotion of wellbeing and mental health, and to respond to meeting those needs.

Policy implementation responsibility is coordinated by the Wellbeing Office which is situated within the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary and special schools. The NEPS service provides access for all schools to:

- Psychological support in the event of a Critical Incident

- A Casework Service for individual children where there is a need for intensive consultation and assessment via a NEPS psychologist or through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments (SCPA).

- A school staff Support and Development Service, to build school capability to provide a comprehensive continuum of support in schools and

- Ongoing access to advice and support for schools.

- NEPS teams offer training and guidance for teachers in the provision of universal and targeted evidence-informed approaches and early intervention to promote children’s wellbeing, social, emotional and academic development.

The following programmes of support are delivered to schools by NEPS nationally:

- FRIENDS Resilience: The evidence-based anxiety prevention and resilience building programmes for all schools. Over 1000 teachers have been trained each year by NEPS.

- Student Support Teams: Training and implementation support for post primary schools to review and develop their systems to support the wellbeing and welfare of all students

- Trauma Informed Practice: ‘Introducing a Trauma Informed Approach, the Stress Factor: Getting the Balance Right’ e learning and live webinars to all teachers.

- Responding to Critical Incidents eLearning Course: NEPS continue the roll out of critical incident training to all schools via an eLearning platform.

- Embracing Diversity includes looking at cultural and linguistic diversity, promoting inclusive practice in education, key psychological constructs such as bias, stereotyping and intersectionality, inclusive language and examples of good practice in schools.

- Welcome to our school: addresses how to support children and young people from international backgrounds, adopt key psychosocial principles (the Hobfoll principles) effective at addressing the wellbeing needs of those impacted by a traumatic event.

- Reluctant School Attendance and school avoidance behaviours: How to support Children and young people who display reluctant attendance and school avoidance behaviour.

‎A dedicated wellbeing portal has also been developed and is now available, bringing together all the wellbeing supports and resources that have been developed by the Department and the Department’s support services, which are available to view on gov.ie - Wellbeing in education.

Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) is a mandatory part of the Primary and Junior Cycle curriculum, which provide vital opportunities for the development of children’s wellbeing in the physical, social, emotional and intellectual domains.

An updated Junior Cycle SPHE specification was published by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in May 2023 and was rolled out for first years in all schools from September 2023. The updated Junior Cycle specification provides clear direction on the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that all students should gain during the three years of junior cycle SPHE.

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.

An updated Primary Wellbeing curriculum has recently been published. The aims of the Wellbeing specification empower each child to thrive, now and in the future. It provides them with the necessary knowledge, skills, concepts, dispositions, attitudes and values to lead active, healthy and fulfilling lives to the best of their ability.

The Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot has 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.

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 Dublin South-West and North Dublin. 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. In the 2024/2025 school year, 56 children in Dublin South-West and North Dublin received counselling supports under the pilot. There are currently 9 counsellors on the panel for these areas.

Strand 2 involves the introduction of Education Wellbeing Teams to provide enhanced in-school supports for a cluster of primary schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. To date, 20 Education Wellbeing Practitioners have been recruited to the four cluster areas. The supports being offered are to pupils, parents, and school staff to support the wellbeing and resilience of the school community.

The pilot is being externally evaluated by the Centre for Effective Services, who were the successful bidder following a competitive tendering process. Through this evaluation we are confident that we will gather valuable learning that will inform future policy and provision in this area.

At post-primary level students have access to counselling which is a key part of the role of the Guidance Counsellor, offered on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process, at moments of personal crisis but also at key transition points .

Also at post primary a Student Support Team is a student-focused mechanism put in place by a school in order to co-ordinate the support available for students in the school and to facilitate links to the community and other non-school support services.

Jigsaw, in partnership with the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS)/Department of Education & Youth, provides a comprehensive suite of mental health and wellbeing resources, training and programmes for post-primary schools through Neart. Neart supports schools to provide learning opportunities for students to promote mental health and wellbeing, as well as mental health webinars and eLearning courses for school staff, Student Support Teams and parents. A full outline of all Neart supports and resources on offer for the 2025/26 academic year is available here .

Additionally, I was pleased to announce details of a total €13.1 billion investment in education and in youth services in Budget 2026 – an almost 7 per cent increase on last year and includes two key commitments in this area:

- €48 million full year cost to implement a new DEIS Plus scheme, commencing in September 2026 to support pupils and students with the highest risk of educational disadvantage and at risk of educational disadvantage in both DEIS and non-DEIS schools through a new DEIS plan. A new DEIS Plan will aim to narrow the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce innovative solutions to tackle disadvantage

- €16 million to continue the roll out of school therapy within special schools and extend it into mainstream schools. This will help to ensure all children and young people have access to essential speech and language and occupational therapy in a timely manner

The DEIS programme is a key policy of government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level.

My department is investing over €180 million annually to provide additional?supports?to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million annually from 2027, to support the implementation of a new DEIS Strategy and introduce a new DEIS Plus scheme, commencing in 2026.

As Minister, I am determined to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce more innovative solutions to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of delivering this objective will be the introduction of a new DEIS Plus scheme. The DEIS Plus scheme will provide additional resources to schools with the very highest levels of need.

To inform the development of the DEIS Plus scheme, I have established a design advisory group with principals, Home School Community Liaison and School Completion Programme coordinators who work every day with children and young people from areas of high inter-generational disadvantage. My department is also intensifying its engagement with other government departments and agencies, the education partners, and stakeholders across the education sector to develop the DEIS Plus scheme. The details of the DEIS Plus scheme are currently being finalised.

Before the end of the year, I will publish a new DEIS Strategy setting out my department’s overall approach to tackle educational disadvantage. This will include details of the DEIS Plus scheme.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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263. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the resources which will be needed to expand counselling and primary schools pilot programme for strand one and two. [62404/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Education and Youth is committed to supporting the emotional wellbeing of our children. In 2023, the department established a €5 million pilot programme of Counselling and Mental Health supports for primary schools. The pilot received additional funding in subsequent budgets, which will now run until June 2026. The Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot consists of two strands.

Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support small numbers of children in schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. The Department of Education and Youth have created panels of pre-approved private counsellors to provide counselling under the pilot and there are currently 43 counsellors available to work in these areas. In the 2023/2024 school year, more than 2,800 counselling sessions took place and I am pleased to inform you that 371 children availed of counselling. In the 2024/2025 school year, more than 6,200 counselling sessions took place and 752 children availed of counselling supports. Counselling blocks have been allocated to schools in these counties for the 2025/2026 school year and counselling supports continue to be provided under the pilot.

In October 2024, my department announced the extension of Strand 1 of the Counselling in Primary Schools Pilot to 61 urban DEIS primary schools. These schools, in Dublin North City and Dublin South-West, have been identified by the department as supporting children from areas with some of the highest levels of disadvantage in the State. In the 2024/2025 school year, over 400 counselling sessions have taken place and 56 children have availed of counselling provision in these areas. Counselling blocks have been allocated to schools to these schools for the 2025/2026 school year and counselling supports continue to be provided under the pilot.

Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of Education Wellbeing Teams to support 77 schools in cluster areas in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. To date, 20 Education Wellbeing Practitioners have been recruited. The focus of the support provided is on strengthening whole-school preventative approaches. This includes the provision of psycho-educational support for parents and teachers and the provision of early intervention on an individual and group basis to children with mild to emerging need using low-level therapeutically informed approaches.

The pilot is currently being externally evaluated by the Centre for Effective Services. It is anticipated that an evaluation report will be completed by the end of 2025. Through this evaluation the department are confident that valuable learning will be gathered that will inform future policy and provision in this area.