Mr. Andy Pike:

Ultimately, it is at the discretion of the board of management and the principal. The work we are doing at the moment with the Department and other stakeholders on this workforce development review is trying to set best practice. We know that in the best schools and good schools, SNAs are fully part of the school community. If they have got some important information from a parent that might be helpful to the team, they would provide it and that is all fine. There are other schools where they are told they cannot talk to parents or guardians and that is a local stipulation. It is important to get something agreed at national level that says that, yes, there is a really critical role for the SNA in liaising with the rest of the school team because they will pick up nuances from students and parents about whether the student has had a bad night or might be a little bit more anxious today. If they are not allowed to get involved in that appropriate communication because of the GDPR or the view that it is the preserve of teachers and teachers only, then the student is missing out and the school is not performing as well as it should.