Jack Wall
Question:743 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science her plans to standardise contracts within the educational system for SNAs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19537/05]
View answerTuesday, 14 June 2005
Questions (717, 718, 719, 720, 721, 722)
Jack Wall
Question:744 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of SNA contracts that have not been renewed in each of the past three years; the reason for such a decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19538/05]
View answerJack Wall
Question:745 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the major concerns of SNAs within the educational system in regard to the erosion of their terms and conditions; her plans to address their concerns; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19539/05]
View answerJack Wall
Question:746 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the guidelines her Department uses to allocate SNAs; her plans to review such guidelines; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19540/05]
View answerJack Wall
Question:747 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the fact that due to the current system adopted in regard to SNAs that the educational system is losing experienced SNAs and that the loss of such is creating problems for children with special needs entering the main stream of education; her plans to change the system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19541/05]
View answerJack Wall
Question:748 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science the criteria or guidelines used to reduce hours allocated to special needs children for SNAs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19542/05]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 743 to 748, inclusive, together.
Special needs assistants, SNAs, are assigned to schools to meet the care needs of individual children who have been assessed by a psychologist as needing this type of support. No change has been made to the criteria or guidelines for allocating SNA support to schools and I have no plans to review the criteria or guidelines under which SNA support is allocated. Applications for SNA support are now dealt with by the National Council for Special Education, which processes all applications for support from schools and communicates the decisions directly to the schools.
However, to ensure that resources are used in the most effective manner, a review has been conducted in recent months to establish whether primary schools have the level of SNA support 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 — 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.
My Department is engaged in discussions with the trade union representing SNAs, under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, on a number of issues relating to the employment of SNAs, including the questions of a redundancy package for SNAs who are now surplus to the needs of a school, retention of experienced SNAs within the system and standard contracts for SNAs. In the circumstances it would not be appropriate for me to comment specifically on any of these issues.
However, no erosion in the terms and conditions of SNAs has taken place. It has always been the case that where the care needs of a child no longer justify SNA support, that support should no longer be available to the school. The Deputy will be aware that the Government has put in place an unprecedented level of support for children with special needs. Since 1998, the number of SNAs has increased from fewer than 300 to nearly 6,000 nationally. In addition, 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.