Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
344. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if additional provision has been made for special education needs co-ordination under the new resource allocation model, as recommended by his Department's inspectorate in relation to the review of the pilot; if schools are expected to provide this from within their resource allocation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13596/17]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that DES Circular 0013/2017 for primary schools and 0014/2017 for post primary schools were published on 7th March 2017.
These Circulars set out the details of the new model for allocating special education teachers to schools.
The revised allocation process replaces the generalised allocation process at primary and post primary school level for learning support and high incidence special educational needs, and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocation process which provided additional resource teaching supports to schools, to support pupils assessed as having Low Incidence disabilities.
The new Special Education Teaching allocation provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.
Allocations based on the school profiles were issued to all schools on 7th March. Details of the special education teaching allocations have also been published on the NCSE website.
The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Substantial research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all of the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.
No school will lose supports as a result of the implementation of the new model. In addition, no school will receive an allocation, for the support of pupils with complex needs, less than the allocation they received to support such pupils during the 2016/17 school year. No allocation made for such pupils by the NCSE will be removed from schools as long as that pupil remains in the school.
An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools. This is additional to an increase of 41% in the number of resource teachers allocated to schools annually by the NCSE since 2011.
The additional funding will provide additional supports to over 1000 schools who are identified as needing additional supports as a result of the new model. Supports for children with special educational needs is a key priority for this Government. The new funding will ensure that all schools receive a sufficient allocation of special education needs resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils, including pupils who have yet to enrol in their school, who require such support.
It will ensure that all schools receive a sufficient allocation of special education needs resources to provide additional teaching support to all pupils in their school who require such support.
The review of the pilot project noted that the Programme for Partnership Government contains commitments to rebuild middle management capacity in schools and that SEN coordination needs to be considered within this context.
I wish to advise that Budget 2017 provides for the commencement of the restoration of middle management posts in both the primary and post-primary sector. My Department in consultation with the Education Partners are carrying out a review of the post of responsibility structure in schools, in the context of restoration of posts, to address the further development of a distributed leadership model.
Circulars 0013/2017 0014/2017 also set out the position in relation to special educational needs coordination time.
The Circulars note that the allocations for special education teaching support include provision for the conducting of planning and co-ordination activities required to ensure the most effective and optimal use of the special educational needs teaching hours provided to schools, for children. The effective use of resources will be dependent upon effective timetabling practices that ensures continuity and avoids undue fragmentation of provision.
The extent of co-ordination time required to be used by schools will vary depending on school size, the number of pupils requiring additional teaching support, and the number of teachers proving this support.
Schools are advised, however, that co-ordination time, should be kept to a minimum in order to ensure that the most teaching time that can be provided for pupils can be given to those pupils.
