Special needs assistants, SNAs, are assigned to schools to meet the care needs of individual children who have been assessed by a psychologist as needing this type of support. I can confirm that there has been no change to the criteria or guidelines for allocating SNA support to schools and I can further confirm that there are no plans to review the criteria or guidelines under which SNA support is allocated.
Applications for SNA support are now dealt with by the National Council for Special Education who process all applications for support from schools and communicate the decisions directly to the schools. At this stage, the council has dealt with all new applications from schools for SNAs that will be required from the beginning of September 2005. However, in order to ensure that resources are used in the most effective manner, a review has been conducted in recent months to establish whether primary schools have the level of SNA support that they need for children in their care, whether they have resources which they no longer need or whether they need extra resources.
The review has found that some schools no longer have the care needs for which the SNA was originally sanctioned that is, in some cases the child may have left the school while in other cases the care needs of the child have diminished as the child has progressed through the school. In this regard, the schools where surplus SNA support was identified have been advised that they may retain this surplus until the end of the current school year.
My Department had been engaged in discussions with the trade union representing special needs assistants, SNAs, under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, on a number of issues relating to the employment of SNAs. These discussions have now concluded. One of the proposals that has been accepted by both parties is to agree to enter into negotiations at an early date with a view to devising a suitable system for redeployment having regard to the complexities involved. It is the objective that this process be finalised for the end of the next school year.
The Deputy will be aware that this Government has put in place an unprecedented level of support for children with special needs. Indeed, since 1998, the number of SNAs has increased from under 300 to over 6,000 nationally. In addition, more effective systems, such as the establishment of the National Council for Special Education, have been put in place to ensure that children get support as early as possible.