Ms Lorraine Dempsey:

We have to take a step back and look at why demand is being generated. That involves looking at our whole education system and the inability to meet the needs of children with more complex educational needs. This is where the demand is created, with parents looking for alternative, more specialised school places for their children. We have a pre-existing flaw that has been driving this, year on year. Rather than underpinning the development of an inclusive education, we are moving in the opposite direction. In terms of our obligations under article 24 of the UN Convention and particularly vis-à-visother European countries which have similar but more segregated education systems, the UN committee is very clear that we should avoid promoting segregated education. This means that we must adequately resource mainstream education so that it can be transformed in such a way as to meet the needs of the majority of children, including those with more complex needs. We are creating a demand, year on year, for children to go into special preschool classes and special ASD classes, although special classes are not exclusive to children on the autistic spectrum. We are driving the demand here by not addressing the fundamental deficits within mainstream schools. That is the starting point for this conversation, notwithstanding the fact that we really need a ten- or 15-year Government strategy, regardless of which political parties are in power, to implement the resource and systems changes that are required to stop that demand from growing further.

We also need a review of special classes and special schools in the context of outcomes. We are looking at inputs and how many special classes we can get open because the demand is there but we are not really looking at the outcome of the development of such classes in the context of children's ongoing educational future. Where do they end up when they go down this road? Do they end up in employment or in day-service provision? What are the outcomes and are they quality outcomes directed towards the needs of the child? I urge the committee to take a step back when looking at this issue.

What we have currently is a lack of future planning in terms of the demand for special educational supports. I refer here to additional special education teaching support, SNA support-----