Ms Miriam Kenny:

It is quite comprehensive. Within that, a school may not be able to provide a service but the way the funding model works is different in England. What the Deputy said about the schools is a good idea as they could plan in advance. There is another issue with the application process. We come across this with parents a lot. The application process and the admissions legislation have changed. Schools can no longer discriminate on anything to do with the Equal Status Acts. Unfortunately, they can discriminate if a child is autistic and it is to do with autism classes. In some schools they will say autism classes are for children with complex needs. Schools can say that a child's level of cognition is a mild learning difficulty. That means some parents, therefore, cannot apply to local schools or certain schools. A number of parents had contacted us about that. The only thing in the Education Act that we are aware of is to do with the special schools. Parents also contact us about that. They say they cannot send their children to a special school, even though they were told to make a section 29 appeal, because the child does not have a mild intellectual disability but a moderate one. When I was looking for a school place for my child, we were told we were on the wrong side of a road to apply. We were told to put together a section 29 application. Parents might then go to the bodies that are supposed to be putting the policies in place and could be told again to take a section 29. We have raised this with the Ombudsman and he said the Department of Education said if any parents know of this happening, they should advise the Department. The Department should be making sure all the policies in schools are absolutely in accordance with what should be there. That goes back to the governance and the boards of management. We have raised that a little bit as well. The inspectorate has said we should be looking at the governance and the boards of management and so on. Schools are really complex when you are working in them. We have to applaud our school leaders who are trying to instigate things and the voluntary people who go onto the boards. If a parent has a difficulty with a school or needs to bring a grievance or complaint, we encourage our parents to work collaboratively. It is very difficult. Parents are extremely vulnerable and worry that their child will be asked to leave the school. If someone has that fear every day and has nowhere else to go, it is really difficult to raise your voice.