Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 June 2015

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Questions (106)

Michael Fitzmaurice

Question:

106. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will reverse the 15% cut in resource teaching hours imposed in 2012 upon individual students with special educational needs prior to piloting the model recommended by the National Council for Special Education; whether the pilot scheme will be introduced in the coming school year; to set out the number and percentage of schools in which it is proposed to run the pilot scheme; if she will restore the resource teaching hours allocated to each student with special educational needs to the levels pertaining in 2010 as an interim measure to ensure students with special educational needs are not adversely impacted while she experiments with the system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25765/15]

Oral answers (6 contributions)

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice

I call on the Minister for Education and Skills to reverse the 15% cut in resource teaching hours imposed in 2012 on individual students with special educational needs prior to piloting the model recommended by the National Council for Special Education, to indicate whether the pilot scheme will be introduced in the coming school year, to set out the number and percentage of schools in which it is proposed to run the pilot scheme, to restore the resource teaching hours allocated to each student with special educational needs to the level pertaining in 2010 as an interim measure to ensure students with special educational needs are not adversely impacted while we experiment with the new system, and to make a statement on the matter.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan

There are now more additional resource teachers supporting children with special educational needs in schools than at any time previously. The National Council for Special Education allocated 6,454 resource teacher posts to schools for September 2015, an increase of 554 posts or 9.4% since September 2014. The total number of posts available for allocation has increased by 27% since 2012, from 5,265 posts in 2012 to 6,705 posts for 2015-2016.

A pilot of a new model for delivering teaching resources to schools to support students with special needs recommended by the NCSE will take place in schools for the coming school year. Initially, 52 schools, including 31 primary schools and 21 post-primary schools, have been invited to participate in the pilot for the coming school year. I have no plans to change the existing allocation process pending the completion of the pilot project and the introduction of a new allocation model.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice

Probably the reason extra people were employed is because more children required the service. Several parents have come to me and said they are not happy with the situation at the moment. They do not believe their children are being looked after well enough. I urge the Minister in this regard. Is the information out there? Do we know the 52 schools in question? What about the other schools while this is going on? Will the position stay as it was last year or will the Minister give them a little more help?

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan

The number is not fully finalised yet because it is voluntary. Not all those schools may accept it. If they do not, other schools will have to be selected. I do not select the schools; they are selected by an independent body. The idea is to have various types of schools represented, including small schools, big schools, rural schools, urban schools, schools that are in the DEIS programme and schools that are not. That is ongoing.

The pilot scheme is intended to be implemented from next September but the new model will not come into place until we have evaluated the pilot model. We do not intend to change the existing situation for schools that are not in the pilot scheme.

There has been an increase in the number of resource teaching hours. While there is a general increase in the number of students, there has been a greater increase in the number of supports, in resource teaching and in special needs assistants for children with special needs. That increase is greater than the demographic increase.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice

Am I correct in saying that it was envisaged first that the new system would be introduced in September but this has now changed to a pilot scheme? Why is that?

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan

There are two reasons. The main reason was that we did not have all the information. The relevant people in the HSE are working on identifying what they call complex needs in children. This starts from when the children are quite young. That information will feed into what the schools need to have for those children when they come to school. That needs to feed into the new model in terms of what allocations different schools will get. Furthermore, it would have been too soon in terms of the change that it would represent for schools.

We did not consider there was enough time to implement it in 2015.