84. Deputy Paula Butterly asked the Minister for Education and Youth her views on County Louth receiving adequate early intervention mental health supports for young people in school, including the expansion of Jigsaw's services, in light of the concerns raised at a meeting on 18 May in Louth; if she will protect funding for youth support workers and consider integrating their role alongside Jigsaw to deliver a comprehensive, community centred support system for young people in the county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52670/26]

At the outset, it is important to note that the provision of child and adolescent mental health services lies specifically within the remit of the Department of Health and the HSE. HSE Primary Care Psychology Services and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) provide a range of clinical supports to children and young people. Where a parent has significant concerns about their child’s mental health, they can request a referral for their child to the CAMHS through their GP. The GP may also be able to signpost to other relevant support services.

The Department of Health established the National Office for Child and Youth Mental Health in the HSE in 2023 to improve leadership and all aspects of care across youth mental health. The Office published its new Youth Mental Health Action Plan in February 2025. This ambitious plan for comprehensive reform across all youth mental health services, including the specialist CAMHS service, will deliver services which are safer, effective, easier to access and which offers appropriate support at all levels when needed.

The three-year Plan sets out a clear roadmap for the Department and HSE to ensure children and families have equitable and timely access to high-quality mental health care, including better links with Primary Care and Disability Services, and greater use of e-mental health responses. The aim is that services will be better connected and easier to navigate, with increased focus on the rights of young people and their families. The development of a Single Point of Access for all child and youth mental health referrals in partnership with disabilities, primary care, and voluntary and statutory agencies is a key priority within the new Action Plan.

A comprehensive, community centred support system for young people’s mental health in county Louth would therefore predominantly be the responsibility of the Department of Health.

Within education specifically 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.

My department has built strong links with the Department of Health to explore ways to improve supports for children and young people more broadly, including around increasing awareness, promoting help-seeking behaviour, school staff training, and signposting the wide range of services available to children and young people.

My department has also been working closely with the Department of Health and the HSE to agree a protocol to facilitate referral pathways to local services, on foot of Recommendation 10 of the HSE’s mental health policy Sharing the Vision. This collaboration will assist in the creation of a Single Point of Access to mental health services for children and young people as per the HSE Child and Youth Mental Health Office Action Plan.

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 Wellbeing in education (https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/govieassets/24725/07cc07626f6a426eb6eab4c523fb2ee2.pdf) (www.gov.ie) 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.

The Department has initiated a Wellbeing Policy and Implementation Plan Review and broader stakeholder engagement process to consult on a successor to the current Wellbeing in Education Policy which will be launched in 2027.

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

NEPS provide 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.

NEPS’ support and development work includes training for school staff on the promotion of wellbeing and resilience in schools, e.g. national webinars such as Understanding Anxiety, Managing School Reluctance and School Avoidance Behaviour, Trauma Informed Practice and elearning on trauma informed practice. This includes upskilling school staff on the use and implementation of evidence-informed approaches in schools, and approaches based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy and attachment-aware practices.

NEPS has published guidance for post primary schools on establishing a Student Support Team (SST) or reviewing an existing team. Psychologists are currently facilitating post-primary schools to improve the Student Support Team process which is the structure through which key wellbeing and wellbeing-related policies are implemented in post-primary schools. 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.

Guidance counsellors are available in post-primary schools and can provide support to students. Guidance counselling is a key part of the school guidance programme, offered on an individual or group basis as part of a developmental learning process, at moments of personal crisis and at key transition points, such as transitioning to further education or employment. Guidance counsellors may work with students on a wide range of developmental issues that some students find difficult to manage.

Guidance counsellors are different to counsellors. Guidance counsellors are not mental health practitioners and recognise the limits of their knowledge, skills and competence. Guidance counsellors refer individuals (and their parents/guardians as appropriate) to other specialised services, as appropriate. Guidance counsellors are required to stay within their professional competence and boundaries.

Jigsaw, in partnership with the NEPS 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.

Neart has delivered a suite of live webinars and eLearning courses for school staff, live masterclasses for student support teams (SSTs), eLearning train the trainer courses for teacher-led classroom-based workshops for students, and live webinars and a new podcast series for parents / guardians.

The Neart Wellbeing Award was launched in September 2025, to acknowledge the commitment of participating schools to mental health and wellbeing. Schools that sign up to participate in Neart, and meet the criteria required, will receive the Neart Wellbeing Award to display on their digital and print materials. The Neart Wellbeing Award is endorsed by NAPD.

Neart webinars/masterclasses for school staff include

• Embracing Diversity: Supporting Minoritised Students and Building Belonging in Schools

• Maximising student voice for mental health and wellbeing in schools

• Social media and student mental health: Strategies for supporting students to have healthy relationships with social media (facilitated by Web Wise)

• Supporting the Wellbeing Needs of Neurodivergent Students?

• Self-compassion as a strategy for self-care for school staff (facilitated by Spectrum Life)

In March 2026, The Department launched the new DEIS strategy, and this initiative includes the provision of a positive mental health and wellbeing initiative which will see the enhanced, targeted and proportionate support being provided with an emphasis on nurturing and trauma informed practices. This work will have a focus on a preventative, early intervention and sustainable approach.

The positive mental health and wellbeing initiative will see the provision of interventions at whole school, whole class, small group and one-to-one level to meet the children’s needs, as well as providing learning and skill-building opportunities. It will also focus on the provision of a continuum of support approach already adopted and used by schools which is a graduated approach to identifying support needs of pupils. This initiative will include access to the support of an education wellbeing practitioner in primary schools in the DEIS Plus scheme with an extension to post-primary schools over time.