Ms Mary McGrath:

I thank the Chairman. I have responsibility for operational matters within the NCSE. The NCSE is a statutory body responsible for providing advice and supports to parents and schools, establishing specialist education places, undertaking research, developing policy advice and providing professional learning opportunities for teachers.

In 2018, the NCSE completed a comprehensive review of the SNA scheme. We recommended a school inclusion model to ensure that students get the right supports at the right time. This model includes a national SNA training programme, a national nursing scheme, more psychologists and the availability of speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and behaviour practitioners on our regional teams. A pilot project has commenced building on the positive results from the in-school and early years therapy project in 2018. The NCSE is working to recommence this project, which has been impacted by Covid-19.

In 2020, we established 197 new autism special classes. There are now 1,570 special classes in place, of which 135 are early intervention, 1,000 primary and 435 post-primary autism special classes. This represents an increase of 9% at primary level and 74% at post-primary level compared with the figures for 2017.

We expect to establish an additional 224 classes for 2021, an increase of more than 15% on 2020, along with a number of additional school places for students with autism. While we experience difficulties in some parts of the country in establishing special education places to meet the needs of children in the local community, schools and their patrons are generally very co-operative and respond positively to our request to establish special classes, and we thank them for this. We also provide a wide range of continuing professional development, CPD, for teachers in the area of autism. More than 35 separate seminars are delivered each year and we have responded to 519 requests for in-school support directly related to autism this year, delivering bespoke teacher professional learning in line with schools' identified needs.