May 18th 2009
Minister Haughey Announces Plan for Integration of Education Services

The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Seán Haughey, TD. today announced a significant boost to the remit of the National Educational Welfare Board.

The new role will include home school liaison and school completion services as well as existing Visiting Teacher supports for Traveller pupils and will be supported by the integration of some 750 personnel employed by these services throughout the country, under the Board.

The Minister said that from the start of the next school year in September 2009, a single coordinated School Support Programme involving the Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL), the School Completion Programme (SCP) and the Visiting Teachers Service for Travellers (VTST) will be integrated under the NEWB.

'In the current climate it is incumbent on us all to examine ways in which we can deliver our services more efficiently,' said Minister Haughey.

'The existing staff of these services currently provide a range of essential services to those children who are most in need.

'I acknowledge the dedication, commitment and innovation of all of the staff of these schemes. This development will put in place structures to facilitate closer integration of the services at local, regional and National levels, increase effectiveness and help bring about real and meaningful improvements in services to confront in a cohesive way the underlying causes that impact negatively on the school life of children, particularly as they relate to school attendance, retention and attainment.

'In ensuring enhanced integration in the delivery of services this approach is part of the Government's overall approach to Transforming Public Services announced in November 2008 .

He went on to explain that full integration will need to be stepped involving the coordination of VTT, SCP and HSCL services in a combined way on the one hand and statutory NEWB functions on the other.

Minister Haughey added that he expected the new arrangements to take time to bed down but is confident that this united approach will significantly benefit service delivery to children and their families and assist schools in meeting the challenges they face in tackling poor attendance and early school leaving.

In 2005 the Department launched DEIS, the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion which envisaged closer integration of the Department's services which work directly with schools, pupils and their families in areas where disadvantage is most concentrated.

'Many of these families have been disadvantaged for generations and these services are provided to support schools which find it difficult to meet the individual needs of all of their pupils from within their own resources.

'These supports seek to break the cycle of disadvantage by helping children to reengage with their schools and to derive maximum benefit from their education.

The NEWB, SCP and HSCL currently have separate national and regional management teams individually providing support and guidance to their local teams.

However, the Minister said that the rationale for the continued separation of these services is has become less obvious given the crossover of responsibility and the common client base being served.

'Combining these teams to deliver a composite service at national, regional and local levels is a positive development and one that will in time realise significant benefits,' said Minister Haughey.

Background Notes for Editors on DEIS and Individual Services

DEIS

The action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), is being rolled out on a phased basis over the period 2005-10, and focuses on addressing the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities, from pre-school through second-level education (3 to 18 years).

The action plan provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). It brings together, and builds upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage. There are 876 schools in DEIS. These comprise 673 primary schools and 203 second-level schools.

DEIS provides various supports for both primary and post primary schools which include:

• Reduced pupil teacher ratio for urban primary schools serving communities with the highest concentrations of disadvantage
• Additional non-pay/capitation allocation based on level of disadvantage
• Additional financial allocation for schools books
• Access to numeracy/literacy supports and programmes at primary level
• Access to Home School Community Liaison services
• Access to School Completion Programme
• Enhanced guidance counselling provision at post-primary level
• Access to the Junior Certificate Schools Programme and the Leaving Cert Applied
• Provision for school library and librarian support for the post primary schools with highest concentrations of disadvantage.

National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB)

The Education (Welfare) Act, 2000 established the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) as the statutory body with responsibility for school attendance.

The general functions of the Board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education. Thus the NEWB has the key role in relation to following up on non-attendance in schools, including a significant role of prosecuting parents where there is persistent non-attendance of their children. The Board also has responsibility to conduct research into underlying causes for poor attendance and disseminating results of such research to assist schools in developing codes of behaviour and attendance strategies.

The service provided by the Board is unique in terms of its statutory remit. The expertise of its workforce lies in tackling non-attendance through a welfare approach. Although a national body, the Board, through its service delivery personnel work in partnership with other services at local level to support the most vulnerable children. It is the single statutory body empowered to prosecute in the best interests of the child to ensure their educational welfare.

In keeping with government policy the Board concentrates its resources in school participating in DEIS.

Home School Community Liaison Programme

The Home/School/Community Liaison Scheme is a school-based preventative strategy which is targeted at pupils who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the educational system because of background characteristics which tend to affect adversely pupil attainment and school retention. The scheme is concerned with establishing partnership and collaboration between parents and teachers in the interests of children's learning. It focuses directly on the salient adults in children's educational lives and seeks indirect benefits for the children themselves. It involves the designation of teachers in schools who take the lead in this work and is co-ordinated by a national support team.

• Home visitation - delivering education information and encouragement.
• Training of parents as home visitors
• Targeting of most marginalised families
• Local committee - setting up and managing
• Development of staff and teacher attitudes, behaviour, so that the school becomes a place where all young people can reach their potential.

School Completion Programme

In addition to additional resources allocated by way of teachers extra supports are provided under the School Completion programme targeted at young people between the ages or 4 and 18 years who are at risk of early school leaving. The programme involves an integrated services approach based on the development of local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process. Selected schools at primary and second levels that form an educational community network serving areas with the highest levels of disadvantage and early school leaving participate in the School Completion Programme. A specially constituted committee of representatives of schools and other relevant agencies must become the Management Committee of the local School Completion Programme. That Management Committee prepares a plan for in-school, after-school, out-of-school and holiday supports for children at risk. Schools and collaborating agencies are required to engage in a consultative and planning process with the school staff, with parents and with local representatives of relevant statutory and voluntary agencies in the development of the plan. They must devise a collaborative programme of in-school, after school, out-of school and holiday actions - The Retention Plan - that will prevent early school leaving and support young people with characteristics and behaviours that are indicative of real risk. The programme is co-ordinated by a national support team.

Objectives

• Preparation of Annual retention Plan
• Project model necessitating the establishment of a local management committee, with an integrated approach involving primary and post primary schools, parents and relevant statutory, voluntary and community agencies.
• to target individual young people most at risk, of school-going age, both in and out of school
• to provide a range of interventions in areas of disadvantage that support the retention of young people in education
• to develop local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process

In-School

• Targeting /prioritisation of young people at most risk of early school leaving
• Attendance tracking/monitoring/awards/rewards
• Individual support/one-to-one/key work/personal & social development/group work
• Programmes in behaviour management/anger management/suspension intervention/Crisis intervention
• Transfer programmes
• Mentoring

After school

• After school clubs/ homework support
• Breakfast clubs
• Extra-curricular activities/ sports
• Summer Programmes/educational trips


Out of School

• Targeting supports for at risk young people who have left school with a view to their re-integration to mainstream

Visiting Teachers for Travellers Service (VTST)

The Visiting Teacher Service for Travellers (VTST) work to promote, facilitate and support the education of Travellers from pre-school to 3rd level access. The VTST contributes to the achievement of this goal by:

• working with Travellers, their families and with schools and centres for education with a view to promoting the integrated education of the target population within an agreed framework
• working with colleagues in the Department of Education and Science and other relevant agencies to further the education of Travellers, the guiding principle of such collaboration being the added value that it gives to the education of Travellers students.

The aim of the VTST is "that young people of the Traveller Community participate fully in an intercultural, anti-racist education system. The Visiting Teacher Service provides opportunities for Traveller parents, their children and schools to engage in a process of development that maximises participation and attainment, combats racism and promotes interculturalism".