Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2020
286. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the fact that teachers and SNAs who sign up to deliver the July provision will not be paid for their work until November 2020; if he will rectify the current payment system to incentivise teachers to take on this role; and if substitute teachers who are delivering the July provision can receive the pandemic payment at the same time. [12621/20]
View answerMy Department has published details of a summer programme for children with special educational needs enrolled in special schools, special classes and mainstream classes. The programme incorporates some aspects of the July Provision of previous years.
Summer Provision 2020 – Reconnecting with Education, is a significantly expanded programme for children with complex special educational needs which aims to re-establish the child’s relationships and connection with school and their peers as a basis for learning and participation and to help the child to re-engage in learning and social activities and help them adapt to new routines and changes. The programme aims to ensure, in so far as possible, that the child can reintegrate/transition into their planned education setting for the next school year with their peers. In-school or home-based supports by teachers and SNAs will help to prevent regression among children with special needs.
The eligibility criteria has been widened to include the following categories of children:
1. Pupils with a diagnosis of Autism
2. Pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties
3. Any child in a special class or special school
4. Children transitioning into a special class or special school from early year’s settings
5. Pupils in primary school mainstream classes who present with the following disabilities:
- Children with Down syndrome
- Children who are Deaf or most severe hard of hearing
- Children who are blind or have a most severe visual impairment
- Children who have a moderate general learning disability
Children with severe emotional behavioural difficulties
All special schools and primary schools with special classes are invited to provide the school based summer provision for their students. This programme will run for a minimum of two weeks and can extend up to four weeks where the schools, teachers and Special Needs Assistants are willing to participate.
Home-based provision will be available where a child’s local school is not providing a programme or does not have the capacity to accommodate a child in a planned programme this year. In this situation my Department will provide grant funding towards the engagement by Parents of a registered teacher / SNA to provide home based support for 10 hours a week for 4 weeks.
The programme will be reliant on schools, teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) choosing to participate on a voluntary basis.
Newly Qualified Teachers, once registered and vetted with the Teaching Council of Ireland are eligible to provide tuition under the scheme. The scheme is not open to unregistered teachers.
Unfortunately, given the volume of payments to be processed annually, approximately 9,500 of which issued in 2019, it is not possible to have all payments processed so as to have them issued earlier than the end of October or early November each year. A common pay date was introduced a number of years ago in order to increase efficiency so that staff can channel their efforts into processing payments rather than dealing with numerous queries on payment dates. This decision was made after consideration of available staffing resources within my Department and there are no plans to change from this arrangement at the current time. The common pay date is advertised prior to the start of the Summer Programme.
It is my understanding that where a person is returning to work and is currently in receipt of the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment, they must stop the payment on the first day back at work. Any further queries in this regard should be addressed to my colleague in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
A dedicated online registration system for families of children with special needs to access Summer Provision is now available on Gov.ie/summerprovision.
Parents are asked to register their participation online, providing some outline information of the extent of their participation in the programme e.g. number of weeks.
Once registered, the parent is then free to plan and organise the programme for their child by consulting with the child’s school and securing the services of a teacher or SNA.
I also announced a programme for DEIS schools for this Summer.
Full information on summer provision and its various strands, including guidance information for parents, is available at Gov.ie/summerprovision.
