Dr. Joe Travers:

On the allocation model, it is important that the rationale that the Department produces gives parents, stakeholders, children and everybody else confidence that the valuable resources that are being allocated are allocated in such a way that we are matching support with needs. We do not have that level of confidence at the moment that the right level of support is being given where the needs are greatest. Some of that goes back to the criteria used in the model. We have a number of criteria. There was the level of complex need, the standardised test results and the level of disadvantage in the school. There was also a gender criterion, which has been removed. By removing the complex needs category, it is difficult to understand how, with just standardised test results and level of disadvantage, there could be sufficient data with which to match the resources that are available with the needs in the school. The Department definitely has work to do in explaining how that could come about.

On health and education, this has bedevilled the system for decades. There are numerous examples of interdepartmental committees, protocols, levels of collaboration and so on. All of them seem to break down. There is a strong need for a legislative governance that covers the integration of health and education. Some of the NCSE's school inclusion model was relying on HSE support. The minute Covid happened, that HSE support was withdrawn and it had a negative effect on the model. We are not sure how that model sits with the children's disability network teams, CDNTs, NEPS, or services attached to voluntary bodies. There is much fragmentation in the system. The challenge regarding health and education working together is significant and it needs to be got right if we are to build the capacity for the sort of co-professional working together that Ms McDonagh was referring to.