Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for the opportunity to address the committee today. We hope that we will be able to answer any questions that arise and give members an insight into the perspective of parents of children with special needs in Ireland.

The Special Needs Parents Association is a peer support network for parents of children with special needs. We do not define our membership by the age or diagnosis of the children and are very much cross-disability in that respect. We cover the areas of health, education, welfare and peer to peer support. Our objective today is to provide members with a parental insight into the factors that both inhibit and support the successful inclusion of children with special educational needs in Ireland. The submission before members is based on our perspectives on both policy and practice on the ground. While we have focused on eight areas in particular, they are not exclusive of each other. Indeed, some of the issues are very closely interrelated.

I will go through the main eight points briefly. One of the areas that we focused on in our submission is the resource model. The current special educational resource model is based on the actual diagnosis of children. Therefore, all allocations are categorised on that basis, with particular reference to resource support hours, which is an educational support given by teachers in a school. The allocation of hours is solely based on the diagnosis of the child. We would like to propose that the resource allocations in education follow a more needs-based model which is currently being adopted in the area of disability service provision under the progressing disability services national plan.

On the issue of the assessment of needs, we feel that there needs to be greater co-operation and integration at local level between the HSE assessment of needs officers and the special educational needs organisers, SENOs, particularly for preschool children. We also feel that the allocation of services for special educational needs and special health needs should follow a singular pathway of assessment. We would like to see one broad-ranging assessment done for all children, resulting in welfare entitlements, service support entitlements and educational supports being assessed together. Currently, children undergo several assessments, which places a burden on parents in terms of getting reports and filling out applications for various different supports across health, welfare and education.

The Special Needs Parents Association strongly recommends the introduction of a classroom assistant to bridge the gap between teachers and special needs assistants, SNAs, in terms of their respective roles. We are of the view that a classroom assistant is the missing piece of the jigsaw with regard to the provision of an integrated educational service, particularly in those mainstream schools where the demands on teachers are higher and where there are a large proportion of pupils with special needs. The so-called "withdrawal" teaching method, which refers to children being taken out of class to have their resource hours provided, does not allow for totally inclusive education. We would like to see a move towards resource hours being provided within the mainstream class, thereby benefiting the teacher in the classroom, who would have direct support from the resource teacher and would be able to learn from the resource teacher's particular experience and speciality.

Our association believes that there must be a greater focus on managing the transition phases from early intervention into preschool, from preschool into primary school, from primary onto post primary school and from post primary onto third level education. One way of improving transitions would be to create better linkages between the different schools in the form of local school partnerships.

Shared access to SNAs is a contentious issue for some parents. As an association, we are concerned that there might be an impression among our public representatives that shared access to SNAs is working on the ground because the parental experience is otherwise. Shared access does not work in many classroom settings and individual schools and has given rise to unacceptable risks for children. Health and safety issues have arisen on many occasions due to shared access to SNAs. This has also led to a reduction in inclusive opportunities in other areas, such as physical education and sport, for children with special needs.

Full implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 has not been carried out on the grounds of the costs involved; this has been well documented. However, we believe that two aspects of the Act which are imperative could be implemented without the need for significant additional expenditure. One measure is the mandatory application of individual education plans, known as IEPs. This is currently international best practice. We would like to see a linking of the allocation of educational resources to IEPs so that outcomes could be measurable. Currently we have no system for measuring inputs in special education. The second measure we would like to see implemented is the establishment of an independent appeals process which is separate from the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. We would also like to see an extension of the remit of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children to include the operations of the NCSE. We understand that this is currently being considered by Government.

Parents of children with special needs are not oblivious to the current economic climate within which the Government is operating. However, it is important that Deputies and Senators recognise that parents of children with special needs must interface with several Departments and State bodies, such as the HSE and the NCSE, and can feel under duress when their child's needs are not being met due to a lack of resources. Both the State and parents have a vested interest in maximising future outcomes for children with special needs because one day they will be adults. As parents, we want them to become adults who can contribute to the State rather than be dependent on it, where possible. Short-sighted budgetary decisions to meet the current demands of external parties can have a detrimental effect on children's future outcomes and place additional financial burdens on the State in the longer term. Maximising investment in children with disabilities serves not only to benefit the children themselves but also the future prospects of their families. We would like to be net contributors to the State. Parental perspectives can be greatly influenced by the overall package of supports that they and their children receive in order to maximise the child's potential and alleviate the additional stresses and difficulties that can be experienced by families. It is often indicated by parents that their child's disability is far easier to cope with than the system itself. The system does not work for us and any measures that would make it work for us, rather than for itself, must be pursued in earnest by this Government.

We will leave the committee with three key principles to reflect on: integration, individualisation and parental choice.