Review of the Department of Education & Youth’s Wellbeing Policy Statement & Framework for Practice

The Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice of the Department of Education and Youth was first published in 2018. It provided a definition of wellbeing, an overarching framework to promote wellbeing in education and a structure encompassing the existing, ongoing and developing work in the area of wellbeing in education.

With the Implementation Plan having come to its conclusion in 2025, we have begun a review and assessment of the progress made and are now planning for its successor.

The main purpose of the review is to develop a new and/or updated Wellbeing Policy for the Department of Education and Youth and develop and agree a new Implementation Plan for the period 2026 – 2030. In addition, the purpose is to strengthen targets and indicators and develop a consistent approach to measuring impact.

This review has three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Internal Review – the DEY Wellbeing Office collected and collated feedback from key internal departmental stakeholders to ascertain 1) progress and achievements to date, 2) challenges encountered, 3) key learnings, 4) recommendations for next steps. This is complete.

• Phase 2: Literature Review - the DEY Wellbeing Office commissioned the ESRI to undertake a Literature Review on wellbeing promotion in schools which broadly looked at:
  • Strengths of the Irish system
  • Areas for improvement in the Irish system
  • International evidence of best practice
  • Measuring and monitoring wellbeing
  • Conclusions
  • This is now complete and the ESRI published their findings on 20 January 2026. See press release and report here
• Phase 3: Stakeholder Consultation – In 2026 the DEY Wellbeing Office will complete the review with a broad stakeholder consultation. The findings of Phases 1 & 2 will inform the consultation with stakeholders in Phase 3.