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Special Educational Needs

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 July 2016

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Questions (186)

Anne Rabbitte

Question:

186. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on where Children First and health and safety legislation implies two adults must hoist, toilet, change and clean a child, as in any clinical setting, yet, the National Council for Special Education reports his Department has no such ruling in place for school teachers or special needs assistants; the reason one adult and one child would be compromised in an educational and special needs setting (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23363/16]

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Written answers

My Department developed 'The Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools' following consultation with the Education Partners.

The procedures for all schools were based on the "Children First – National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2011". Child protection and welfare considerations are relevant to all aspects of school life and Boards of Management must ensure that such considerations are taken into account in all of the school's policies, practices and activities. It should be note that these guidelines do not include provisions that require that manual handling of children necessarily requires the involvement of more than one adult. In addition, my Department is unaware of any legislative provision requiring that more than one adult must be involved in manual handling of children.

The body which has statutory responsibility for ensuring that health and safety requirements are met by all employers, including schools, is the Health and Safety Authority (HSA). The HSA in conjunction with the Kilkenny Education Centre has also issued guidelines to all primary schools in relation to managing safety, health and welfare.

The Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills.

Circular 0030/2014 was introduced following a Value for Money Review of the SNA Scheme, which restates and clarifies the criteria for the allocation of SNA support to schools, for both schools and parents. The review found that the purpose of the scheme and the allocation process was generally not well understood within schools or by parents. It found that the deployment of SNAs in schools had in practice moved away from the objectives originally envisaged, which was to provide for children's care needs, and had moved towards SNA involvement in behavioural, therapeutic, pedagogical/teaching and administrative duties.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support to schools, in accordance with the criteria set out in Circular 0030/2014.

Students who have care needs requirements are therefore granted access to SNA support, whereby a quantum of SNA support is allocated to a school, which is reflective of the assessed individual needs of a group of identified children. Those SNAs will then be in a position to cater for the care needs of those designated pupils, as the need arises, and as they require assistance, with the level of support being provided reflecting actual need at any given time.

The provision of a quantum of SNA support to schools gives schools the autonomy and flexibility to manage their allocation in order to utilise this support to the best possible effect. It allows schools to target support to those pupils who have the greatest degree of need at any given time, recognising that the level of need that a child may have may be variable over time. Schools are in a position to use their educational experience and expertise to manage the level of support which has been allocated to them to provide for the care needs of identified children as and when those needs arise.

The majority of children who have care needs require attention and assistance at certain times of the school day and require intermittent intervention at particular points. There are a relatively small number of children, who for medical or sensory reasons associated with their condition, require full time care support throughout the school day. For such children, access to full day support will be provided for and this will be reflected in the schools' quantum of SNA allocation.

All schools were asked to submit applications for SNA support for the 2016/17 school year to the NCSE by 29th February this year. The NCSE continues to accept applications in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed. The NCSE will consider these applications and make further allocations to schools in respect of valid applications which have been received to September.

I recently announced the provision of an additional 860 SNA posts for the coming school year, bringing to 12,900, the total number of SNAs available for allocation to schools, which is an increase of almost 22% in the number of posts available since 2011, which was 10,575 posts.

The NCSE advised all schools of their allocations for SNA support for the coming 2016/17 school year, on 14th June, 2016, based on the number of valid applications received to date.

Details of all of the allocations which have been made to schools for SNA support, on a per county and per school basis, have been published on www.ncse.ie.

It should be noted that SNA support allocated to a school by the NCSE can change from year to year as students who had access to SNA support leave the school, as new students with care needs enrol and as students develop more independent living skills and their care needs diminish over time.

Where a school wishes to appeal the SNA allocation which has been made to them, they may do so through the NCSE appeal process, details of which are set out at www.ncse.ie. The option to invoke the NCSE appeals process is open to the school/parent in question, but to date no appeal has been received by the NCSE.

All schools have the contact details of their local SENO, while Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available the NCSE website.

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