New funding of €1m will support secondary school students’ mental health and wellbeing

The tender will invite suitable providers to work closely with the Department of Education over a two/three-year period to develop and deliver additional supports in post-primary schools for wellbeing and mental health.

Ms Foley told journalists at the Teacher’s Union of Ireland’s annual congress in Killarney she was “hopeful” the new supports should be in place for the 2024/2025 school year.

“For the first time we will go to tender for additional supports and a service provider to provide additional supports in the area of wellbeing within our schools,” Ms Foley said.

“We know that young people learn more effectively and have better academic outcomes if they are happy in their work and feel acknowledged and supported in school.

The demand for responsive services to support the mental health of children and young people is increasing, particularly in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic and reported associated heightened levels of anxiety.

Ms Foley said the tender would invite services to support students, parents and school staff with additional, readily-accessible support.

“This will build on the good work already happening in schools to enhance wellbeing and mental health and will complement existing supports provided through the National Educational Psychological Service, Oide and other services and agencies,” Ms Foley said.

“I would strongly encourage service providers with experience of delivering high-quality mental health supports on a national level to young people of school-going age to apply when this tender issues in the coming days.” 

It is anticipated the tender will open in early April, with contract awarded and work commencing by July.

Service providers will be asked to:

• Enhance schools’ capacity and policy in mental health and wellbeing; 
• To provide learning opportunities to promote mental health and wellbeing; 
• Provide psychoeducation to support parents’ mental health and wellbeing through workshops and e-learning; 
• Enhance parent/carer involvement in school wellbeing initiatives; 
• And to train staff in mental health awareness.

“It will be an investment for perhaps two to three years and it will augment, if you like, the excellent supports that are already provided by staff and it will support them to do even more in the space of health and wellbeing within our schools,” Ms Foley said.

“We're expecting that we go to tender before the end of this month.

“Every school will know their own school best so they will make the judgment call on how best to utilise that support.

Long before the term 'wellbeing' was ever coined, I believe it has always been at the absolute core of education.

The department has also established the Counselling in Primary Schools – Pilot (CPS-P) to enhance support for wellbeing/mental health at  primary school level.

For the first time, the provision of direct counselling and wellbeing supports in almost 650 primary schools is available. 

The pilot includes two strands. Strand 1 is the provision of one-to-one counselling to support a small number of children in all primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. 

Strand 2 of the pilot is the establishment of a new type of support to schools from Education Wellbeing Teams and the introduction of education wellbeing practitioners to support clusters of schools in Cork, Carlow, Dublin 7 and Dublin 16.