This customer charter describes our role, values and service standards, which apply to all our stakeholders and all those with whom we come in contact.

Our Role

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) was established in 2002 and has a statutory function to ensure that every child either attends school, or otherwise participates in an appropriate education. One of our key roles is to advise or act as a support for a child, young person, parent or guardian if there is a difficulty with school attendance.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to maximise the level of educational participation of children and young people by ensuring that each child is attending school or otherwise participating in an appropriate education.

Values

We are committed to providing high-quality services to our customers. Our values guide our ethos and culture and shape how we deliver our services. These values are:

• Prioritising the best interests of children and young people
• Advancing educational equality for all children and young people
• Supporting and enabling our staff
• Delivering high standards of corporate governance
• Working inclusively and collaboratively within the organisation and with customers.

Our Service Standards

Quality Service

Our customers are children, parents, schools, Government, community groups and voluntary agencies. Customer satisfaction is very important to us and we aim to achieve this by:

• Offering our customers the highest quality service and advice
• Treating our customers in a fair, respectful, impartial and courteous manner.

We apply these standards across the following areas:

Equality and Diversity

We aim to develop our knowledge about equality and diversity through staff training, information and communication. In our dealings with our customers, we are committed to ensuring that equal rights and treatment, as set out by equality legislation, are upheld at all times.

Physical Access

We aim to provide clean, accessible public offices that ensure privacy, comply with occupational and safety standards and, as part of this, facilitate access for people with disabilities and others with specific needs, wherever possible.

Information

We are committed to:

• Providing comprehensive, complete and coherent information about our service
• Providing help and advice to our customers via our Helpline: Lo-Call 1890 36 36 66, which operates Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm
• Ensuring our forms, leaflets and correspondence are simple and easy to understand and available in the appropriate language
• Providing useful information on our service via our website, www.newb.ie, or by emailing info@newb.ie. Timeliness and Courtesy
• We will deal with correspondence and queries in a timely and respectful way
• We endeavour to provide timely and accurate information via our Helpline: Lo-Call 1890 36 36 66; our website, www.newb.ie; and our Regional Offices
• We endeavour to acknowledge correspondence within 10 working days of receipt
• We shall inform customers / clients should any delay arise
• We shall give contact names and telephone numbers in all communications.

Contact our Accessibility Officer Seamus McSorley on 01 873 8732 or by email at seamus.mcsorley@newb.ie for futher information on any of the above.

Consultation and Evaluation

• We will monitor and evaluate our performance against our Customer Charter and Action Plan and impart our findings in our Annual Report
• We will examine the development and delivery of our services on a regular basis in order to better meet our customers' needs
• We will consider feedback and implement changes where appropriate.

Official Languages Equality

We aim to provide a high-quality service through Irish and/or bilingually and inform customers of their right to choose to communicate through one or other of the official languages.

Better Coordination

We will work with other relevant Government Departments and agencies to coordinate our services to you. We endeavour to offer as wide a choice of methods to contact us (listed below).

Improving Our Service

The National Educational Welfare Board is committed to providing a high-quality service to all our customers. We value your suggestions on how we can improve our service. We welcome your views on what we are doing well or areas where improvements are required.

Internal Customer

Our staff members are recognised as customers within the organisation and we are committed to ensuring that they are properly supported, consulted with and developed in all aspects of their work within the National Educational Welfare Board.

Contacting Us

The National Educational Welfare Board currently operates through five regional teams, each of which is headed by a regional manager. Our service is provided from over 26 locations nationwide.

We endeavour to acknowledge correspondence within 10 working days of receipt. We also endeavour to deal courteously with all customers, giving contact names and telephone numbers in all communications and keeping customers informed should any delay arise.

You can contact us on any of the following numbers:

NEWB Head Office 01 873 8700
Regional Office Dublin City 01 873 8600
Regional Office Leinster North/Ulster 01 810 3261
Regional Office Leinster South 01 463 5513
Regional Office Munster 021 453 6314
Regional Office West/North West 091 385 302

You can also contact an Educational Welfare Officer on our Helpline: Lo-Call 1890 36 36 66, email us at info@newb.ie or write to us at 16-22 Green Street, Dublin 7. See our website at www.newb.ie for further information.

You can get additional copies of this Customer Charter by email or by post or by downloading a pdf version through the following links.

Customer Charter
Download English version (PDF Format)
Download Irish version (PDF Format)

Action Plan
Download English version (PDF Format)
Download Irish version (PDF Format)