Vol. 500 No. 2
40 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether his Department maintains adequate records of children with special needs and the services they receive; if he will arrange an immediate sample survey along the lines of the 1993 survey; and if he will arrange for a return to his Department from each school of children with special needs and their service needs. [3741/99]
I am not satisfied with the overall level of information available to my Department on children with special needs within the school system. While significant information is available on children attending special schools and special classes, there is a particular need to develop more comprehensive data on children with special needs attending ordinary schools on a fully integrated basis. Arrangements are being made to address this matter in the context of my recent announcement of a major new development in special education services.
Under this new development, all pupils who have been assessed as having a special need arising from a disability are entitled to an automatic response to that need. The response may take the form of extra teaching support or child care support, or both, depending on the needs of each child.
My Department is finalising a detailed circular and information note which is expected to issue to all primary schools before the end of February. The purpose of this exercise is to alert all schools to recent developments in support services for special needs children and to advise schools on how to apply for support under this initiative. Details of each of the disability categories identified by the special education review committee plus autism will be included in the information package. Schools catering for such children will be required to provide detailed information on the number of children involved; their ages; the nature of their disabilities; and the support required. Information provided by schools under this initiative will be of significant assistance to my Department in identifying the overall number of special needs children within the system and the nature and level of special needs involved.
Following analysis of the data received, such additional information as is required will be sought by way of further research. This is an area I intend to keep under review and I have asked my officials to prepare proposals to ensure my Department will on an ongoing basis have comprehensive information on the nature and level of special educational needs. The information gathered in the recent survey of second level special needs conducted by AHEAD will play an important role in this review. This data is being analysed.
There is a massive backlog in accessing psychological assessments and assessments of special needs. The Department estimates that 6,000 of the new entrants to school each year will require psychological assessment. If we are to rely on psychological assessments as the gateway to additional services, does the Minister agree he will not be able to deliver on his commitments to children with special needs?
I do not agree. The existing database was weak. The purpose of the circular and information note being issued to every school is to identify the children who require special assistance or provision. Some will require professional assessment. A survey was conducted in 1993. Since November an additional 33 resource teachers and 156 child care assistants have been appointed.
The Minister indicated in replies to parliamentary questions that access to additional resources will depend on an assessment of need conducted by the Department. There is a massive backlog, despite the Minister's best efforts. This means he will seek to funnel the resources required by a huge number of children through a tiny pipe.
I accept that the psychological service has to be improved. Special provision was made in the budgetary package for the appointment of additional psychologists. We have moved speedily in a range of areas. Since November 156 child care assistants and 33 resource teachers have been appointed. The inspectorate has adopted a proactive approach in validating returns from schools. Work remains to be done but the additional appointments will help.
Will the returns result in the Department being able to track the services available child by child? If a school identifies 20 children with special needs, will the Minister be able to identify the services available to each of them?
It has been decided that a cluster of 12 children will justify the appointment of a full-time resource teacher. Within that group individual children may require the services of a child care assistant on a one to one basis or home tuition. There are a range of options.
Will there be an assessment of need?
Yes. One cannot just accept a list of names. The backlog is not as large as the Deputy suggests.
A figure of 1,000 was shown against 6,000.
Up to November the Department was not in a position to respond as the required resources were not available to cater for the needs identified. Many cases ended up in court. It has been decided to provide for children with special needs.
41 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Minister for Education and Science the plans, if any, he has to establish a special review group for learning disorders; the learning disorders recognised by his Department; if he will publish a definition of this and the number of children involved; the research, if any, being carried out by his Department in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3715/99]
The special education review committee, which reported in 1993, carried out a comprehensive review of educational services for children with special needs. The report presented by the committee has been published. It provides a detailed description of each special needs category. It also provides a detailed breakdown of the number of children in the education system within each such category, as determined by surveys carried out on behalf of the committee. In respect of each distinct group identified, the committee put forward detailed recommendations for the development of special education services.
My Department's approach to special education services is much based on the recommendations of the special education review committee. The categories of special need recognised by my Department include those identified by the committee as follows: remedial need; borderline, mild, moderate and severe or profound mental handicap; general learning disabilities; visual or hearing impairment; emotional disturbance; spec ific learning disability; specific speech and language disorder; physical disability; autism-autistic spectrum disorders; multiple disabilities.
Definitions relating to each of the above categories will be included in a circular being finalised in my Department and expected to issue to all primary schools by the end of February. The purpose of this circular is to alert schools to important recent developments in support services for special needs children. Under these developments, all pupils who have been assessed as having a special need arising from a disability are entitled to an automatic response to such needs. The response may take the form of extra teaching or child care support, or both, depending on the needs of each child.
Schools catering for such pupils will be required to provide detailed information on the numbers of pupils involved; their ages; the nature of their disabilities within the defined categories; and the support required.
Information provided by schools under this initiative will be of significant value in assisting my Department to develop more up-to-date information on the overall number of special needs children in the school system and within each special needs group. This is an area I intend to keep under review and I have asked my officials to prepare proposals on how my Department can, on an ongoing basis, assess the nature and level of special educational needs. I welcome Deputy Higgins to this debate.
I am grateful for the Minister's good wishes. My question is linked to the answer given to Deputy Bruton's last question and concerns the methodology involved. I am grateful for the reply and the list supplied. However, how is a child defined in terms of that list? If the child, as a citizen, becomes entitled to special services on foot of an assessment by the Department, the Department is then effectively screening the need and defining the total demand. Will the total volume of need be decided by a definition which is widely surveyed among the population of children or will the need be defined by those assessed by the Department? I am leaving aside the question about the number of learning disorders that might or might not be included. Will a universal coverage of children be used to discern the extent of learning difficulties and will provision be then made, or is the Minister saying that a child with specific learning difficulties who has been so assessed, as the Minister puts it, professionally, within the Department then becomes entitled to a service?
My second supplementary specifically relates to research. I wonder about the adequacy of an estimate of the number of children in each of what are conventionally regarded as the learning disability categories. I would question whether sending a questionnaire to schools and asking how many children are attending school would satisfy such a research requirement as a basis for policy.
Every child who is assessed as having a special need will be provided for, which is a Government decision; that was not the case up to last November. Many children who were assessed as having special needs were not provided with their entitlement. From now on, every child with a special need will be entitled to a response which will vary according to the needs of the individual child; every case is different. In the SERC review, there are different pupil-teacher ratios for the different categories.
As regards research, the survey conducted by the SERC group gave certain figures in terms of the categories. We are not just sending out a simple questionnaire, as it is not just about quantifying but about following up with provisions so there is an incentive for schools to send back information, not only on the children but also on the categories. We have already received some very detailed responses from schools. However, I accept we have more research to carry out, not just in the areas covered by SERC but also in the area of learning difficulties.
For many years there has been a dearth of research in this country on certain areas, for example, autism. To a large extent we are relying on international experience and research in other countries to inform methodologies. This does not apply in all cases as a number of people have been pioneering in their approach. However, we do not have as much indigenous research as we should have.
I am grateful for the Minister's reply. This matter is so important, we must make progress on it. I take it the Minister is giving an undertaking for further research to be carried out, other than the survey to which he referred. If, for example, a system had missed the conditions of many children in the past, how could it be relied upon to find out the new conditions, for example, dyspraxia, dysgraphia and dyscalcula? How does a teacher know a child suffers from any of these conditions if they have never been trained to recognise them? So many children have already been lost to dyslexia. Will all these categories be investigated in the survey or, if that is deficient in their recognition, will there be supplementary research to enable a quantification, which in turn will enable a universal policy response?
In terms of the disabilities outlined by the Deputy, SERC concentrated on what we call the traditional special needs area. As regards the areas mentioned by the Deputy, such as dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia etc., one of the terms of reference of the primary teacher training review body which I put in place to review the entire teacher training programme is the special needs and learning difficulties area. Whatever proposals emerge from that group should include comprehensive modules on the conditions outlined by the Deputy so that all new primary school teachers entering the system would immediately recognise them and have greater exposure to them.
In terms of the existing teaching force, we need to provide more in-service programmes, which we intend to do. The Department of Health and Children has a full intellectual disability database, which contains a large amount of data which is available to our planning department. However, we still have more research to do into the areas outlined by the Deputy.
