Neasa Hourigan
Question:81. Deputy Neasa Hourigan asked the Minister for Education the number of primary school children currently accessing school support plus services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10863/24]
View answerWednesday, 6 March 2024
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The Department has set out the Continuum of Support framework to assist schools in identifying and responding to pupils’ needs. This framework recognises that special educational needs occur along a continuum, ranging from mild to more significant, and from transient to long term, and that pupils require different levels of support depending on their identified educational needs. Using this framework helps to ensure that interventions are incremental, moving from whole school and class-based interventions to more intensive and individualised support, and that they are informed by careful monitoring of progress.
Identification of educational needs is central to the model for deploying special education teaching resources in schools. Using the Continuum of Support framework, schools can identify pupils’ educational needs, to include academic, social and emotional needs, as well as needs associated with physical, sensory, language and communication difficulties.
As special educational needs can vary from mild and/or transient to more significant and enduring, educational planning should reflect the level of need of the individual pupil. In this regard, the Student Support File is used to record a graduated response to the identification of need, planning, intervention and the monitoring of outcomes across the different levels of the Continuum: Classroom Support, School Support and School Support Plus. For pupils with significant, enduring and more complex needs, collaboration with external professionals, including multi-disciplinary teams, is advised (for example, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist and psychologist).
Decisions as to how additional teaching resources are deployed at the level of the school are a matter for the school’s leadership team in conjunction with the special education teacher(s). These additional resources are deployed taking account of the principle that children with the greatest level of need should receive the greatest level of support. Every school operates within its own context and the number of children who access the highest level of support will vary from school to school. Typically, however, the highest level of school support plus is provided for a small number of pupils, thereby facilitating the provision of intensive and individualised support to the pupil at this level.
Data in relation to individual pupils who receive support in line with the continuum of support is held at the individual school level.