Minister Foley launches Report of the Expert Group on Student Participation and Department Implementation Plan

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD today announced the launch of the Report of the Expert Group on Student Participation and of the Department of Education’s Student Participation Implementation Plan.

These contain five key recommendations to ensure students are included meaningfully in policy development and will be implemented by the department in full.

The expert group on student participation was established in May 2023 to advise the Department of Education on how best to improve its work on involving children and young people in policy development.

The group, chaired by Professor Laura Lundy, Queen’s University Belfast, and University College Cork, adopted a child rights-based approach and considered the findings from a wide-ranging consultation process, strongly focused on the views of children and young people.

Some of the key actions the Department has committed to implement are:

a new training plan for department staff to involve children and young people in policy development
training for department staff on writing in a student friendly accessible way
an annual report on student participation in policy development
an annual participation newsletter to children and young people to show them how their views have influenced policy in the Department of Education
a student-friendly summary page in inspection reports on curriculum evaluations in primary schools and inspection reports on subject inspections in post-primary schools

Minister Foley said:

"As Minister for Education, it has always been my guiding principle and passionate belief that we serve the students who are in our care. From the beginning of my ministry, I was determined to include our students’ voices, their views and vision. Students now sit around the table in terms of partnership in the Department of Education with all the other stakeholders. They also now sit for the first time in the history of the State on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

“The work that has been ongoing under Professor Laura Lundy will support the department’s work to ensure that we now have opportunities to ensure that the voice of students is embedded in the policy making decisions of the department.

“I want to thank everybody involved in in this great work, including Professor Laura Lundy and each member of the expert group. I also thank all those who participated in the extensive consultation process. I would especially like to thank the children and young people, including those on the child advisory group and the youth advisory group, who helped develop this report. Your insight, experiences and views have hugely influenced the content of this report.

“We now have guiding principles and an implementation plan that will ensure that going forward, the voice of students will be at the heart of all that we seek to achieve in education.”

Professor Laura Lundy, chair of the expert group said:

“The report of the expert group breaks new ground in numerous ways. It is the first that I am aware of, anywhere in the world, that will inform the student participation activity of a Department of Education. The report of the expert group is also written so as to be accessible to its primary beneficiaries – students as rights-holders. And finally, for the first time, the report of the expert group is being published along with the department’s implementation plan, immediately feeding back to students what the Department of Education intends to do in response to their inputs.”

The five recommendations are that the department:

builds on its understanding
develops its processes
communicates with children and young people
promotes good practice
holds itself accountable

Some of the other key actions the Department has committed to implement are:

to develop and implement a customised training programme and a training and resource pack for staff working in the student participation unit to build strong in-house expertise in student participation
to establish child and youth advisory groups to support the work of the student participation unit
to publish an annual plan for student participation in policy development
to pilot a student participation in policy development showcase event for children and young people
to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of children and young peoples’ participation in decision-making among students, parents, teachers, school leaders, school staff and boards of management
to review and update the Student Councils: A voice for students’ resource to support the establishment of student councils in primary and post-primary schools

to promote student-led initiatives in schools such as initiatives to promote wellbeing, including preventing and addressing bullying behaviour

This work was heavily informed by the views of children and young people who participated in consultations and some of whom were members of the child advisory group and youth advisory group. A number of these children and young people participated in the launch event today at the Department of Education on Marlborough Street in Dublin.

Amongst the schools who participated in the celebrations were:

St Ciaran’s National School, Baylin, Westmeath

Coláiste Chíaráin, Athlone, Roscommon

Carline Learning Centre, Lucan, Dublin

Scoil Chiaráin Special School, Glasnevin, Dublin

St Michael’s Holy Faith Secondary School, Finglas, Dublin

The full report and detail can be found at gov.ie/itstartswithyou

Notes to editors

The establishment of the student participation unit in the Department of Education and the establishment of the expert group on student participation are key actions contained in Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying.

The report of the expert group on student participation, background report of the expert group, report on consultations with children and young people and the Department of Education’s student participation implementation plan 2024-2026 can be found at gov.ie/itstartswithyou.

Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying

Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying is the Department of Education’s whole-education approach to preventing and addressing bullying behaviour in schools. It is dedicated to the prevention and addressing of bullying, cyber bullying, racist bullying, gender identity bullying and sexual harassment, among other areas, in schools.

Cineáltas is centred on a child rights-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 behaviour in our schools.

The implementation plan for Cineáltas, published in April 2023, committed to implementing each of the 61 actions contained in Cineáltas within a five-year period. Significant progress has been made in implementing the actions. Cineáltas Action Plan on Bullying and its implementation plan can be found at the following link

The Bí Cineálta Procedures to Prevent and Address Bullying Behaviour for Primary and Post-Primary Schools were published in June. The procedures can be found at the following link