Guidance Supervision is under the chairmanship of the Teacher Education Section (TES) of the Department of Education (DE) and is administered through Monaghan Education Centre. It facilitates all guidance counsellors working in second level schools and colleges of further education in undertaking professional supervision of their guidance counselling work, and particularly their one-to-one counselling activity with students. The Institute of Guidance Counsellors organises the location and timing of the counselling support service at local level throughout the country.
The service is delivered through a series of six two-hour sessions of counselling supervision support in each academic year, by a professionally qualified Counselling Supervisor. Each guidance counsellor will therefore receive a total of twelve hours supervision throughout the academic year and will be provided with an appropriate certificate of attendance at the end of May.
The DE recognises the need to support professional practice in guidance counselling, and therefore funds this supervision of guidance counselling service.
Please find below information on the DE Guidance Policy
Department of Education Guidance Policy:
The Guidance Unit in the Department of Education was established in 2022. Since then, a number of key policy documents relating to whole school guidance, including the role of the guidance counsellor, have been published. This includes a circular on guidance in post-primary schools and a number of information notes. It is incumbent upon guidance counselling supervisors, that they are aware of this policy content.
ALL contemporary policy is accessible through gov.ie – Guidance
Key policy documents include, but are not limited to the following:
Circular 0001/2025 Circular on post-primary Guidance
0003/2024: Information Note for Principals, Guidance Counsellors and Guidance Teams in relation to the storage and transfer of guidance-counselling notes (2024)
0001/2024: Information Note for Principals, Guidance Counsellors and Guidance Teams in relation to Whole-School Guidance
0009/2023: Information Note for Principals, Guidance Counsellors, Guidance Teams in relation to Whole-School-Guidance Provision at Junior Cycle
0008/2023: Information Note for Schools in Relation to Personal and Social Guidance Counselling
0001/2023: Advice on the use of assessment instruments/tests for Guidance or for additional and special educational needs (SEN) in post-primary schools
The DE circulars listed below support the provision of one-to-one guidance counselling for students in post-primary schools.
- Circular 0006/2025 Staffing arrangements in Voluntary Secondary schools for 2025/26 school year
- Circular 0007/2025 Staffing Arrangements in Education and Training boards for the 2025/26 school year
- Circular 0008/2025 Staffing Arrangements in Community and Comprehensive Schools for the 2025/26 school
Please find below useful resources relating to Guidance Supervision
Problem-solving Protocol for Supervisors and Supervisees
Letter to Principals of attending Schools.
Letter to Principals of non-attending Schools.
How to access Guidance Counselling Supervision: www.igc.ie or ring 01 6761975
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