The Department of Education and Youth is committed to supporting the emotional well-being of our children and young people. In June 2023, the Department of Education and Youth launched a €5 million landmark pilot of counselling and wellbeing supports in primary schools in selected counties.
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.
The Department has 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. There are currently 43 counsellors working in schools across the seven pilot counties.
Strand 2 is the introduction of Education Wellbeing Teams to provide enhanced in-school supports to a cluster of primary schools (77 schools) in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16. The Education Wellbeing Practitioner is a new type of practitioner introduced as part of this pilot to provide enhanced in-school support. The practitioners are graduates of psychology, education and social science and undergo an in-depth training programme provided by NEPS. The focus of the support provided under Strand 2 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 to children with mild/emerging need, using low-level therapeutically-informed approaches. To date, 20 Education Wellbeing Practitioners have been recruited to the four cluster areas.
The Department introduced a Strand 2 Wellbeing Grant of €2,000 per school, for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 school year, to promote and support wellbeing focused initiatives in Strand 2 pilot schools. Examples of the types of initiatives which schools may put the grant funding towards include developing wellbeing gardens, purchasing sensory regulation equipment, running Wellbeing Ambassador programmes and other wellbeing-promoting interventions. The NEPS Education Wellbeing Teams are available to provide information and support to the schools in identifying wellbeing supporting resources and initiatives.
This is a pilot and therefore it is not possible to include all schools. I have ensured that there is a cross section of schools across the provinces included in this pilot. The Centre for Effective Services are evaluating the pilot and the findings of the evaluation will inform future policy and provision in this area. Preliminary findings of the evaluation are very positive from schools parents and children, with calls for the continuation and expansion of Strand 2
