Ms Teresa Griffin:

The Senator asked how to achieve the best outcomes. In our supports paper we recommend strongly that the EPSEN, Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, Act 2004 remains the best way. Its full introduction provides for individual assessment and the right resources to be delivered to support those. Obviously we are not there yet. We have made 27 other recommendations that we think can be implemented in the short to medium term. That includes a move away from diagnosis, which will free up professional time for assessments to inform teaching and learning. That is crucial. Rather than spending hours diagnosing a child with a disability, people should assess what the child needs to succeed in the classroom. Where additional resources are allocated, whether SNA resources or teaching resources, they must be part of a comprehensive individualised plan for that child. Personalised planning must happen at school level. It is reasonable if we are allocating additional resources that the school should plan how they are going to use those resources and that the outcomes are monitored.

In regard to the teaching assistant or SNA, we undertook some research in that area and looked at models in various countries. It is an issue that is not easy to crack and everybody is struggling with it. There are countries that have no special schools, there are countries where there are no teaching assistants, and there is everything in between. We need to go back and focus on what the child needs in order to progress. What does the child need to learn? Howe can we free up the professionals in order to carry out that assessment and increase the skills of teachers to enable them to intervene? In our supports paper we struggled with the issue of how to make a recommendation in this area.

There is a great deal of evidence to show that where we have teaching assistant-SNA professionals, they impede the ability of the child to access the teacher. These people are linked to the child and working with the child and because of this they form a barrier not only between the child and its peers, but also between the child and the teacher. This happens not because people are not working well together but because the teaching assistant is working with the child while the teacher is working with the rest of the class. Where children have such complex needs and learn differently, we need the most skilled person to support those children. Special education is a much broader issue than one of teaching assistants and SNAs. Also, research is very mixed in terms of impact and outcomes. We must be concerned with how to deliver the best outcomes. If we tell parents of children with special needs that they should taught by somebody other than the teacher, that is the wrong message to send out. All children, including those with special educational needs, deserve to be taught by fully qualified teachers who understand their needs.