Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2015
639. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding special needs assistants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34159/15]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that this Government is committed to ensuring that all children with Special Educational Needs can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network.
A range of supports have been provided for schools which have enrolled pupils with special educational needs in order to ensure that, wherever a child is enrolled, they will have access to an appropriate education.
We now have a higher level of Resource Teaching and SNA support than ever before.
I recently announced that an additional 610 Special Needs Assistant posts are being provided for this year. This will ensure that every child with an assessed need has access to SNA support, in keeping with the Government's commitment in this regard.
I also announced provision for an additional 480 Resource Teachers, to take into account increased demand and demographic growth and to ensure that children can continue to have access to additional supports in school.
In addition, all Primary and Post Primary schools have a permanent allocation of additional teaching supports to provide for children whose educational psychological assessment places them in the high incidence, or less complex, disability category.
The role of the resource and learning support teacher is to assist the mainstream class teacher to provide educational support for pupils with special educational and learning needs.
My Department completed a Value for Money (VFM) and Policy Analysis Review of the SNA scheme in 2011 which concluded that the SNA Scheme has been successful in supporting schools in meeting the needs of students with disabilities who also have significant care needs.
The review made a number of recommendations regarding the SNA scheme which have been reflected in my Department's comprehensive Circular, 30/2014, on the SNA scheme
This Circular notes that the purpose of the SNA scheme is to provide for the assessed care needs of individual children and that SNA support is provided specifically to assist schools to cater for the care needs of pupils with disabilities in an educational context, where the nature of these care needs has been outlined in professional reports as being so significant that a pupil will require adult assistance in order to be able to attend school and to participate in education.
As such, there are no plans to make SNAs generally available to all classes, which may not have pupils with assessed care needs. However, all schools are supported by general allocations of additional resource teachers or learning support teachers who have a role to support the mainstream class teachers.
In announcing the provision of an additional 610 SNA posts in July of this year I also announced that a review of the SNA scheme will be carried out to ensure that it is meeting its objectives and that best use is being made of the significant resources invested. Any considerations with regard to future of the scheme will be considered in the context of this review process.
