Home School Community Liaison

Under DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) the Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL) seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services. A HSCL Coordinator is a teacher from a participating school/s who is released from teaching duties, for a maximum of five years, in order to work intensively with and support parents/guardians. The overarching goal of the HSCL Coordinator is to improve educational outcomes for children through their work with the key adults in the child’s life.

The HSCL coordinator also works in an integrated way with the other two strands of TESS; School Completion Programme (SCP) and Educational Welfare Service Statutory (EWS), in order to provide appropriate initiatives and interventions for families.

Home Visits are the primary point of contact for HSCL Coordinators, as this is where strong relationships are built with parents/guardians. In addition, HSCL Coordinators organise parent classes in the relevant school/s and provide information and guidance to parents/guardians with regard to accessing community based programmes and supports.

The scheme also supports families as their children transition from early education to primary school, from primary school to post-primary school and finally from post-primary school to further and higher education, training or employment.