Ms Patricia Griffin:

The HSE is trying to move away from the idea of assessment. It does not want to have to present any kind of educational assessment, which was really what it was doing. The HSE was responsible for the assessment of needs in the early intervention services and was doing the assessment, yet it was presenting an educational assessment. It is trying to move away from that and has almost stopped doing those assessments. Many people are having great difficulty getting them done. We do not know what is going to happen, which was one of responses to the NCSE policy document.

We have no idea about how assessments will be managed. The current system was based on those reports. There is no clear time frame for something new to happen. Will it be the teachers in schools with the children who are currently in school? If a teacher is responsible for a class of 30 students when and how will it happen? What about the children who have not yet started school? Who will carry out assessments in regard to their education? Given that they will be in the system for 14 years, they require a proper educational assessment if they are to benefit. There is no suggestion as to when that might happen. Teachers are best trained to deliver that kind of assessment but it is also an ongoing process and I prefer to refer to the process in terms of the statements that Ms Buckley discussed rather than assessments, which are very definite.