I would like to thank the Deputy for the question.
Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers.
In 2023, my department spent over €2.6 billion on special education and further progress will be made this year as an additional €113m will be dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs.
As the SET allocation model has been in place since 2017 based on a 2014 NCSE report, my Department believed a review of the model was prudent. The department commenced a review in late 2022 to ensure that the model was meeting the changing needs in special education.
The review of the SET allocation model further identified that a programme of continuous development was required to ensure that the model was delivering effectively, both in supporting the changing needs in the education system, and for individual schools. All schools received their full allocations, including the SET allocations, for the next school year, on 6th February 2024.
A high level roadmap has been discussed and agreed with our education partners during a series of consultations to enhance the inputs and improve the sensitivity of the model.
The journey of enhancement begins with the 2024/25 allocation by ensuring that the model has a strong foundation.
The complex needs input, which was introduced in the 2017 model, was predicated on the provision of data from the HSE Children Disability Network Teams on children entering junior infants with special education needs who were assessed or triaged for a waiting list for assessment.
The review highlighted concerns in relation to the veracity and the consistency of the data provided on a national basis by the CDNT. This resulted in the potential for significant variations from one area of the country to another. In addition, it is not possible to verify whether all data reported relates solely to educational need as distinct from care needs, which are resourced through the Special Needs Assistant allocation process, or medical needs.
To ensure that schools are not negatively impacted by these issues, all existing hours assigned for complex needs are being maintained for each school and future data from the CDNT will not be used as a value in the model. This is being done by reapportioning this value at individual school level across the remaining pillars with an emphasis on the Literacy and Numeracy category which demonstrates where additional teaching supports are required. This exercise strengthens the model to give a sustainable allocation to schools, which recognises where there are significant learning needs.
I would like to assure you that there have been no cuts to mainstream Special Education Teaching posts in the education system. There are now more Special Education Teaching posts than ever before in schools.
For 2024/25 there will be 14,600 SETs – double the figure from 2014 and an increase of 1,000 from the 2020/21 school year.
Furthermore the SET model is an allocation model to provide schools with additional teaching supports to support the learning needs of students. I want to assure you that the guidance to schools on the proper deployment and usage remains unchanged and that schools must deploy their SET resources in line with the Continuum of Support. The guiding principle of the continuum is that SET resources usage and deployment continues to be that the student greatest level of need should receive the greatest level of support.
I would be the first to acknowledge that every school is different, and that schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in any standardised method. This is always a challenge when we seek to make allocations in respect of 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that the review process has been streamlined for Special Education Teachers and schools who feel that they have received an inappropriate allocation can make this application to the NCSE.
My department is committed to ongoing engagement with all of our education partners in relation to future developments and enhancements to the SET model.
The Department of Education values hugely the close collaboration with stakeholders, including advocacy groups in supporting children with SEN. An Advocacy Forum, which includes Down Syndrome Ireland and was established in March 2022, has been a useful mechanism to progress shared objectives. To date the Forum has focused on issues that were prioritised by the advocate groups – including summer programmes, special class provision and behaviours of concern.
The Department has agreed that further engagement is required with advocacy groups, including on SET early next week and other issues which affect their members, which is planned in 2024.
