Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 September 2011
130 Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he has given further consideration to the need to appoint additional special needs assistants at a school (details supplied) in Dublin 24, particularly in view of the continued concerns of the local school community in relation to this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25614/11]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. This now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts.
Some 10,575 whole time equivalent (WTE) posts are being provided for SNA support for the coming school year. This is a significant number of posts and unlike other areas of the public sector vacancies are being filled up to this number.
It is considered that with equitable and careful management and distribution of these resources that there should be sufficient posts to provide access to SNA support for all children who require such care support to attend school, in accordance with Departmental criteria.
The NCSE issued a circular to all schools advising of the allocation process for the 2011/2012 school year. A key feature of the amended scheme is to provide for an annual allocation of Special Needs Assistant support to eligible schools.
The NCSE has now advised all mainstream schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy in Tallaght, of their SNA allocation for the current school year, taking into account the care needs of qualifying pupils attending the school.
I wish to clarify that the recruitment and deployment of SNAs within schools are matters for the individual Principal/Board of Management. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.
The NCSE will advise schools early in the new school year of any review process to review allocation decisions to ensure that correct procedures were followed and that they comply with my Department's policy. The merits of individual allocation decisions will not be open to appeal under this mechanism.
It will be expected that schools, before requesting a review, will be in a position to demonstrate that they have made every effort to manage their allocation of SNA posts to best effect.
