Mr. Dessie Robinson:

I thank the committee for affording IMPACT the opportunity to up-to-date it on the position regarding special needs assistants, the situation they face and our own concerns regarding same.

IMPACT continues to invest in the education sector. It is the fastest growing area within the union. Since we established a dedicated education division just three years ago we have had two very successful biennial divisional conferences. We see the education division as providing a voice for all of those staff who work in our education system, other than teachers and academics who are already well represented by various trade unions. In truth, the workers who we represent are often forgotten or neglected but are crucial to the successful operation of our schools and colleges and to the outcomes that are achieved.

A large proportion of the divisional membership is comprised of special needs assistants. The expansion in the number of special needs assistants was a key element in the process of making mainstream schooling a reality for many of our citizens. The commitments contained in the different pieces of legislation enacted in the late 1990s and early 2000s were dependent on the provision of adequate care and teaching resources. Members of the committee will be aware of the population growth in this country over several years now. This has manifested itself in a sustained increase in the number of school-going children. When the financial, economic and fiscal crisis struck, one of the consequences was a Government decision to cap the overall number of special needs assistants. This cap remained in place for four years despite conditions that would suggest the existence of significant additional demand, namely, the increase in the school-going population.

The current Minister for Education and Skills deserves credit for securing additional posts, as announced last year. This followed an increase of 390 posts announced by her predecessor in the previous budget. However, these increases did not make up for the lost ground during the period 2009-12, particularly when account is taken of the relentless growth in this cohort of the population. It is vitally important that members of the committee understand that the employment situation of special needs assistants is markedly different to that of the vast majority of other public servants. Originally, the special needs assistant was linked directly to a particular child. Hence, the association in the mind of parents and the children with special education needs with "his", "her" or "my" SNA. In recent times, the policy has changed to one of access to an SNA rather than an individual SNA assigned to each child. The effect of this is that the school receives a particular allocation but is required to spread this over all of the children in the school with assessed needs.

The original connection between the special needs assistant and a particular child meant that when that child progressed or left the school for some other reason the SNA faced redundancy. In fact a specific redundancy scheme exists for SNAs. Unlike most other public servants special needs assistants do not enjoy relative security of employment. This places special needs assistants in a rather unusual position in the context of recent public service agreements. As committee members will know these agreements were based on commitments to, on the one hand, flexibility and co-operation with change in return for job security and, on the other hand, no further reductions in income. As SNAs do not enjoy job security in the first place the bargain was somewhat meaningless for them. As a result of IMPACT’s representations we secured the introduction of a supplementary assignment panel in 2013. Where an SNA is facing redundancy this provides the possibility of alternative employment as schools that have posts to fill are required to interview a selection of redundant SNAs in the first instance. This was a welcome development and the scheme was further improved in 2014. None the less, special needs assistants do not enjoy what would be regarded as normal public service security of tenure.

The big issue that has preoccupied special needs assistants since IMPACT was last before the committee is that of fragmentation of posts and casualisation of employment. When I was last here, I outlined some of the effects of the trend to fragment posts when the National Council for Special Education was making its allocations. This became an even greater problem in the 2014-15 school year. In several cases, our members working as special needs assistants had their hours cut, which also meant an associated reduction in income. As this violated the other key commitment on the part of the Government in the public service agreement-----