The Minister for Education and Youth, Hildegarde Naughton, has announced a €2 million investment aimed at expanding training and supports for schools to effectively respond to behaviours of concern, with the overarching goal of improving outcomes and experiences for children. This initiative focuses on early intervention, de-escalation, and promoting wellbeing, while ensuring school staff are equipped to respond safely and appropriately to students in distress.
As part of the programme, a new parental complaints portal will be introduced to provide parents with an independent pathway to raise concerns if they remain dissatisfied with how a school handled an incident involving restraint. This portal, launching in September 2026, will be reviewed by a panel of experts including former inspectors, psychologists, a child safeguarding specialist, and other stakeholders, offering a fair escalation process for rare but serious cases.
Minister Naughton highlighted the importance of placing the child’s wellbeing at the centre of these measures. She emphasized that effective responses in challenging moments help children feel secure, build trust, and enjoy their school day without disruption. Teachers and school staff will benefit from enhanced professional learning opportunities to gain confidence in managing such situations.
The investment expands existing support from the NCSE, NEPS, and the Inspectorate, providing access to a dedicated summer course for primary teachers, updated guidance on behaviour management, and ongoing focus on de-escalation and student wellbeing. The NCSE is also procuring additional training for mainstream schools on crisis response, which will be rolled out upon completion.
The new parental complaints portal complements these supports, allowing parents who have completed a school’s internal complaints process to submit documentation for independent review. This measure, which operates ahead of formal statutory procedures, reinforces trust, transparency, and child protection, ensuring concerns are addressed by qualified experts.
Overall, the initiative strengthens schools’ capacity to support children in distress, promotes safe and proportionate interventions, and provides a structured mechanism for independent oversight, aiming to create safer and more supportive school environments across Ireland.
