Department of Education Inspectorate reports on the Home School Community Liaison service in primary and post-primary schools
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From: Department of Education
- Published on: 4 December 2024
- Last updated on: 15 April 2025
The Inspectorate of the Department of Education today published a report on the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) coordination in primary and post-primary schools.
Home School Community Liaison coordinators are fully registered and experienced teachers who work in partnership with the significant adults in a child’s life, in order to improve educational outcomes for the child. The focus of the role is to improve the attendance, participation and retention of children in school.
The report, ‘Improving Outcomes for Children and Young People: Evaluation of Home School Community Liaison in Primary and Post Primary Schools’, draws on findings from evaluations in thirty schools - 15 primary and 15 post-primary - carried out between February and May 2024.
The report identifies aspects of effective HSCL coordination in many schools. These included:
• a clear vision by school leadership in respect of parental engagement, with activities for parents and children to work and learn together through Maths for Fun, cookery classes and seasonal activities,
• strong partnerships with parents and the community by linking children with local libraries, after-school clubs, sports activities, community-based counselling services and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in some cases,
• very effective collaboration with staff in the School Completion Programme and the Educational Welfare Service and
• strong oversight of the work of HSCL coordinators with 93 per cent of schools holding formal meetings with them every week
The report acknowledges the unstinting work happening in some schools to support children and young people from homeless families and unaccompanied minors seeking international protection.
The report also identifies areas where HSCL coordination could be strengthened. It found that some schools were not fully using data such as attendance figures, assessment results and parent and staff survey responses to inform the work of HSCL coordinators. In addition, more than half of the schools lacked effective systems to monitor whether the strategies implemented by HSCL coordinators were meeting their improvement targets.
• 23 of the 30 HSCL co-ordinators spent at least one-third of their time on home visits in line with the requirements of the post but seven did not.
• 21 of the 30 schools had appropriate systems in place to gather and record the perspectives of parents, but nine did not.
• 18 of the 30 schools did not have a systematic structure in place to monitor and review the effectiveness of universal and targeted interventions by HSCL co-ordinators in meeting their targets for improvement.
Addressing these issues will require a coordinated, system-wide approach to ensure better support for and monitoring of HSCL initiatives into the future.
Publishing the report, Chief Inspector, Yvonne Keating, said:
“This report highlights the very important contribution that effective HSCL coordinators make to improving outcomes for children and young people. The report also shows the importance of fostering positive relationships between parents and schools and between schools and their communities. There are, however, some areas that require improvement.
“For example, HSCL interventions were not always targeted at those families most in need of support and there was a need for many of the schools evaluated to monitor the effectiveness of the HSCL interventions more carefully. The Inspectorate will work closely with Tusla Education Support Services (TESS) and other stakeholders in implementing the report’s recommendations.”
Minister for Education, Norma Foley TD welcomed the publication of the in-depth report by the Inspectorate, based on interviews with HSCL coordinators, school staff, parents and children.
“HSCL coordinators play a crucial role in improving school attendance rates and preventing early school leaving. This report shows that their regular home visits are also building bonds of trust between families and school, and encouraging parents to become involved in their child’s education.
“It is very positive to see that HSCL coordinators are working well with staff in the School Completion Programme and the Educational Welfare Service to support the children who need it most.
“The recommendations of the report highlight the need for schools to continually monitor and review the effectiveness of HSCL coordination to ensure the scheme delivers the best possible outcomes for children and young people. My Department is committed to implementing these recommendations,” she said.
The Department of Education Inspectorate report on the Home School Community Liaison service in primary and post-primary schools is available here.
For further information please email Inspectorate@education.gov.ie.
Further information
• The Department of Education provides a wide range of supports to all schools to promote the inclusion of all children and young people. Supplementing these universal supports, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme provides additional resources to identified schools to assist them in reducing barriers to children and young people reaching their potential.
• Schools are identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme based on levels of socio-economic disadvantage in their community. Levels of disadvantage are identified using a range of data held by the Department of Education and other Government Departments. These include the Department of Education’s Primary and Post-Primary Online Databases and Central Statistics Office data from the Pobal HP Deprivation Index for Small Areas.
• Primary schools in the DEIS programme are categorised into three bands: urban DEIS band one schools are those with the highest level of disadvantage; urban DEIS band two schools have the next highest level of disadvantage; and rural DEIS are schools in rural areas with high levels of disadvantage. The supports that primary schools in the DEIS programme receive are based on these categories, with urban band one schools receiving the highest levels of supports. Post-primary schools in the DEIS programme are not categorised into bands.
• The HSCL Scheme is one of the supports available to all urban band one and urban band two primary schools and to all post-primary schools in the DEIS programme.
• The HSCL Scheme is funded through the Department of Education and is managed by the TUSLA Education Support Service (TESS). It is one of three strands of TESS; the other two are the School Completion Programme (SCP) and the Educational Welfare Service (EWS).
• Schools in the HSCL Scheme have access to a HSCL coordinator who is a fully registered and experienced teacher. Based on enrolment and level of need, the HSCL coordinator is either allocated to one school or shared between a number of schools.
• HSCL coordinators are assigned for a term of five years, and engage in full-time liaison work between the home, the school and the community. After five years, they return to their teaching post.
• The primary role of the HSCL coordinator is to work in partnership with the significant adults in a child’s life, in order to improve educational outcomes for the child. Read more here.
• The focus of the role is to improve the attendance, participation and retention of children in the Irish educational system, by providing both universal and targeted supports.
• Further information is available here.