AQW 35608/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 17/11/2025
Answered On Date: 02/12/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any early help emotional wellbeing interventions, available to pupils in (i) primary; and (ii) post-primary schools.

Answer:

Pupil emotional health and wellbeing will be supported within schools in a variety of ways, and the joint Department of Education and Department of Health Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education Framework provides overarching guidelines to schools around having a whole school approach to emotional health and wellbeing. The Education Authority (EA) Being Well Doing Well programme is the foundational programme in helping schools adopt, embed and improve this approach.

Other education and health programmes associated with the Framework, and available to schools include:

RISE KS2 programme (primary),

EA Youth Service REACH programme (primary and post-primary)

Emotional Wellbeing Teams in Schools project (post-primary), and

The HOPE post primary counselling service

Schools have flexibility around the type of support provided for pupils and authority to use their individual budgets to fund external providers for programmes aimed at promoting positive emotional health.