Ms Catherine Byrne:

It does not tend to be available in adult education in general. Maybe it is available in higher education. However, in the further education sector and in the adult community education sector it is not really the norm in our experience. We find sometimes that there can be an emphasis on the label, although this does not take away from the importance of learning the label. When a person comes in, there are many reasons they need to do basic literacy or basic maths. They may be starting again. They may be filling in gaps that were never met in primary school. As Ms O’Connell says, there are many reasons. They could relate to addiction, to the culture of the schools, or to individual factors in that person. They may relate to adverse childhood experiences, as was mentioned this morning. We do not look at the disability as such. We say, “Here is a person. What do we want to do together?”. Informally, we will make a learning plan. It could be done if somebody is with us for a few classes. We will walk on a journey with that person. As much of our work is individualised, that person will often say they have never actually sat with a teacher who has listened to them-----