Minister launches Action Plan for Bullying

Posted by SchoolDays Newshound, on 10/04/2023. Minister launches Action Plan for Bullying

Tags: Education And Politics Parenting Teachers

Minister for Education Norma Foley launched the Implementation Plan for Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying on 9th April 2023. This is the Department of Education’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying in schools.

Four key areas of the implementation plan are:

a €5 million pilot programme of counselling supports for primary school students

the establishment of a Student Participation Unit

the establishment of an expert group chaired by Professor Laura Lundy, Professor of Education Law and Children’s Rights at Queen’s University

the updating of the anti-bullying procedures for schools

Cineáltas is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools.

It is centred on a child right’s based approach and provides a collective vision and clear roadmap for how the whole education community and society can work together to prevent and address bullying in our schools.

The implementation plan for Cineáltas commits to implementing each of the 61 actions contained in Cineáltas within a five-year period and sets out timeframes and information about how the department is going to implement the actions.

An Implementation and Evaluation Group is being established to oversee implementation of the actions and the publication of annual implementation and evaluation reports, informed by feedback from children and young people, parents, school staff, education partners, key stakeholders and relevant agencies.

Implementation of the actions in Cineáltas has already started:

the department has recently established a Student Participation Unit, which will promote the participation of children and young people in the development of department policy, building on its existing work in this area

an expert group has been established to advise the department on how best the Student Participation Unit can progress its work. Professor Laura Lundy, Professor of Education Law and Children’s Rights at Queen’s University who developed the Lundy Model of children’s participation will chair this expert group

work to update the anti-bullying procedures for schools is well underway with continuous professional development and training being developed for all school staff, board of management members and parents

€5 million is being invested to pilot a programme of counselling supports for primary school students. This will serve to support the very positive work which already takes place in the area of wellbeing in schools. The details of the programme are currently being finalised

A copy of the Implementation Plan is available here
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