The Deputy may be aware that a review has been conducted in recent months to establish whether primary schools have the level of special needs assistant, SNA, support that they need for children in their care, whether they have resources which they no longer need or whether they need extra resources. The review has found that some schools no longer have the care needs for which the SNA was originally sanctioned, that is, in some cases the child may have left the school while in other cases the care needs of the child have diminished as the child has progressed through the school. In this regard, the schools where surplus SNA support was identified have been advised that they may retain this surplus until the end of the current school year.
There is no redeployment scheme in place by which SNAs who are surplus to requirements in a particular school could be redeployed to another school. Putting such a scheme in place would be quite complex as there is no guarantee that as a post becomes surplus in one school, an additional post would become available in the locality. Unlike teachers, where posts are allocated on a pupil-teacher ratio basis which enables a redeployment scheme to work effectively, SNA posts are allocated on the basis of individual care needs and the creation of a workable redeployment scheme would be much more difficult.
The Deputy will be aware that this Government has put in place an unprecedented level of support for children with special needs. Indeed, since 1998, the number of SNAs has increased from under 300 to nearly 6,000 nationally. In addition to this, more effective systems, such as the establishment of the National Council for Special Education, have been put in place to ensure that children get support as early as possible. It is important to state that where it has been established that additional SNA posts are required, these posts are continuing to be allocated on an ongoing basis.