Mr. John Kearney:

I wish the Chairman and all Oireachtas Members a good morning. On behalf of the NCSE, it is a delight to meet with the committee this morning. I commend all members on their deliberations, which will make a difference to so many young people's lives.

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, as an gcuireadh a thabhairt don NCSE teacht chun labhairt leis an gcomhchoiste inniu. John Kearney is ainm dom agus táim anseo ar son an NCSE. We warmly welcome the opportunity to assist the committee on matters relating to the services and supports that the National Council for Special Education provides to support autistic students in our schools. I am here in my role as chief executive officer in the NCSE. I am also joined today by my colleagues Mary McGrath, head of operations, and Paula Prendeville, head of inclusion, policy and practice. Ms McGrath has overall responsibility for the delivery of front-line services to children, families, teachers and schools. Ms Prendeville leads on policy and practice with responsibility for inclusion and special educational needs in the NCSE.

The National Council for Special Education was established in 2004 to improve the delivery of educational services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities, with particular emphasis on children. The NCSE’s vision is for an inclusive society in which children and adults with special educational needs are supported to achieve better outcomes in their education. We provide advice to the Minister for Education in matters of special education, including autism. We support schools to enable students with additional needs, including autistic students, to develop skills for life so that they can participate meaningfully and to their fullest potential in society.

The focus of our supports for autistic learners is always to enable inclusive practice in schools that centres on a strength-based approach and embeds the autistic voice. The NCSE provides a range of supports in the area of autism that are focused on building the capacity of schools to meet the holistic needs of neurodiverse students. Our programme of supports for autism includes teacher professional learning programmes, establishing special classes and special schools and providing assistance to schools that have opened special classes for autistic students. We regularly engage with stakeholders who support autistic people and work in partnership with other educational providers.

In our role of building capacity in our schools to support autistic students, the NCSE facilitates a range of professional learning opportunities for teachers that include seminars, in-school supports and communities of practice. Our seminars range from courses that are two hours in duration, facilitated after school by our advisers, to supporting cluster meetings that assist teachers to embed practice-based evidence to support autistic students in schools. In partnership with St. Angela’s College in Sligo as a linked provider of the Atlantic Technological University, our multi-day seminars lead to an accredited course that awards a graduate certificate or diploma in special educational needs. Some graduates of this course also progress to a master's level degree in autism.

The NCSE has a central role in establishing special classes and special schools to meet the needs of students with very complex learning needs. For the forthcoming school year, there will be 2,184 autism special classes providing places for more than 13,000 autistic students in our schools. This is an increase of 561% over the past decade. Some 306 new autism classes have been established for this coming September.

We have an essential role in supporting schools who open a special class for autistic students. We provide a range of supports to schools when they open their first class for autistic students. These supports include a principals’ seminar that provides practical information on establishing a special class. This seminar facilitates a learning space for principals to meet each other and learn from other principals who have previous experience of opening classes. We have designed and developed a four-day introduction to autism seminar which all teachers who are opening their first special class are invited to attend. Teachers universally comment on the invaluable information they gain by attending these courses. These schools also receive follow-up support from one of our advisers. All staff in schools who establish new classes have the opportunity to attend a facilitated exceptional closure day to increase the school’s awareness and understanding of autism. This approach embeds the creation of a whole-school culture to support the inclusion of autistic learners in the school community.

In the past school year, the NCSE has sanctioned and supported the establishment of two new special schools to cater for students with autism and complex needs, located in counties Dublin and Cork. Both schools have received bespoke training programmes developed in consultation with school principals and their management bodies.

Requested by the Minister for Education, the NCSE facilitated the first national special needs assistants’, SNA, training programme, which has been developed in collaboration with the school of education in University College Dublin. This course will train up to 3,500 SNAs in our schools and, in collaboration with neurodiverse people, this course has a dedicated module designed to support SNAs to have a greater understanding of their autistic students’ strengths and needs.

We also published a range of resources that assist autistic learners in our schools. These include supports to assist with the summer provision programme, a publication to develop sensory spaces in schools and a resource that assists teachers to facilitate movement breaks that support the regulation needs of students. Upcoming publications to assist schools to build their capacity to support autistic students will include Establishing Communication, and Planning for Teaching and Learning in the Special Class.

In its advisory role, the NCSE’s published policy advice paper No. 5 provided advice to the Minister for Education on the provision of supports for autistic learners in our schools. One of its recommendations was to publish good practice guidance to assist schools to meet the diverse needs of autistic students. We worked in collaboration with educational partners to support the development of this guidance. In March of this year, we welcomed the Department of Education’s publication of this guidance to facilitate an environment where autistic students can participate meaningfully in school life.

The NCSE has a long-established partnership with Middletown Centre for Autism. Middletown centre is a North-South body that provides excellence in autism education provision. We work collaboratively with the Middletown centre around the provision of teacher professional learning. We support teachers of students with autism to access specific courses by providing travel and subsistence costs. In addition, substitute cover is available for teachers with primary responsibility for autistic students where it is deemed essential by their school principal to attend a specific training course. We also have representation on the steering committee for the pilot learning support and assessment project that Middletown centre implements and which supports the needs of autistic students, their families and their schools.

Déanfaidh muid gach iarracht na ceisteanna a fhreagairt inniu agus is féidir linn scríobh chuig an chomhchoiste tar éis an chruinnithe le heolas breise más mian le comhaltaí. Táim sásta, agus ag súil freisin,

le haon mholtaí atá ag an gcomhchoiste maidir lenár seirbhísí a fheabhsú do dhaoine le riachtanais speisialta a chloisteáil.