Educational Disadvantage Centre welcomes Minister for Education and Skills' new policy announcement of specialist counsellors in primary schools

The Minister for Education and Skills Norma Foley TD’s new policy announcement of over €5million for a national pilot of specialist emotional counsellors in primary schools has been welcomed in the Irish Times, by Professor Paul Downes, Director of the Educational Disadvantage Centre, in DCU’s Institute of Education,

The Educational Disadvantage Centre has led calls nationally in recent years for specialist emotional counsellors in schools. It has done so through invited policy submissions and presentations to the Joint Oireachtas Education Committee in 2020 and 2021, endorsed in the key priority recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Education Committee reports in January and August 2021. These submissions and presentations built on the Centre’s research work at EU Commission level on system gaps in counselling supports in Irish schools compared to many European countries impacting on early school leaving, as well as on the role of trauma and school suspension in the experiences of homeless men in Ireland.

The Centre Director, Professor Paul Downes has led advocacy for specialist emotional counsellors in schools on national radio, RTE's Today with Claire Byrne on Wednesday May 18th 2021 and Newstalk May 3rd 2021, as well as in the national print media of the Irish Independent, Irish Times and Examiner.

Seana Brady, a NEIC (North East Inner City) Funded Fellow with the Centre has given invited presentations on this issue directly to the Minister for Education and Skills, and to the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party.

At the National Forum, Resilient, Inclusive Systems for Vulnerable Groups: Key Areas for Development in the new National Children’s Policy Framework, hosted by the Educational Disadvantage Centre on St. Patrick’s Campus DCU in April 2022, this priority issue of specialist emotional counsellors in schools was a central theme discussed. The Forum panellists included Tanya Ward, CEO of the Children’s Rights Alliance and Aine Lynch, CEO, National Parents Council Primary.

The specialist emotional counsellors in schools is proposed as part of a new postpandemic social contract between health and education, advocated by the Centre through keynote presentations in other national fora, including Children’s Future Network National Webinar, Children’s Rights Alliance National Webinar and FORSA School Completion Programme Symposium.

The Educational Disadvantage Centre also liaised with key national stakeholders such as the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), Children’s Rights Alliance, Barnardos,  Focus Ireland and St. Vincent de Paul for a common policy position including this issue in 2020. The INTO passed a motion at their April 2022 Congress to direct their Central Executive Committee ‘to engage with the Department of Education and HSE to:… provide funding and resources to introduce on-site school counselling in primary schools in line with international best practice’.