Ms Teresa Griffin:

We addressed the issue of the expansion of the role in our supports paper and people do think there might be a gap in the system. Much of this is driven by the fact that everybody wants the best for children with special educational needs. Everyone working in education wants children with special educational needs to grow and thrive. We are almost desperate to do everything we possibly can and get every resource. I was struck by a comment made by Ms Lynch on the fight parents feel they have, and that it is a case of any resource as opposed to the right resource. Perhaps the discussion must be about the right resources children should receive.

Many SNAs are very well qualified and have improved their skills, but many of them have not. These children have the most complex learning needs and the most skilled people are required to intervene, educate and support them. It is of concern that for a long time throughout the health and education sectors SNAs were the only demand-driven support available, until the cap was put in place. This led to a huge increase to plug gaps.

The needs in some schools are very intermittent. Perhaps at post-primary level an SNA is needed to help a child during a practical class but support is not needed outside of this, perhaps a child has toileting needs which can be anticipated, or perhaps an SNA is required at break times. No one in the education system wants to leave an adult walking around or sitting outside a classroom doing nothing, which happened at the beginning of the scheme when SNAs sat outside classrooms reading a book until called on. There has been an evolution over time with regard to perceived gaps, but the perceived gaps are with regard to the right supports as opposed to anything else.

I thank Senator Power for her comments on our material for parents. We have produced another document quite recently, because the more information we can get out to professionals and parents on how the education system supports children the better. We recently launched a document on helping parents choose a school for their child and we have outlined the types of supports made available.

With regard to Deputy Ó Ríordáin's comments, we undertook quite a wide degree of discussion and consultation when we were working on our supports paper. We consulted SNAs, and what was remarkable was the discussion that took place among the SNAs on the different types of role they had. SNAs in special schools undertake quite different duties from SNAs in mainstream schools. It is quite interesting that there is acknowledgement that the initial and original reason for the scheme still exists in special schools where children have enormously complex needs and needs for very direct care support.

It reflects the fact the duties of SNAs have expanded because in the mainstream schools the children do not have the level and extent of address of care needs as in special schools. In terms of how the role has changed, that is certainly an interesting aspect, as we found during our consultation process.

In response to Deputy Ryan, what we found recently is there has been a very extensive increase in the demand for resource teaching supports. We are currently working on consideration of a new model for allocating teaching supports to schools and we have been engaging in widespread consultations. One of the questions we have asked some of the professional groups that have come in to us is why there is such an increase in children who have assessed conditions. There seem to be multiple reasons rather than one reason. One reason that is given, for example, is that there is a greater acceptance and awareness that children learn differently and that there can be underlying reasons for that. Given that psychology and therapeutic programmes and the professions have developed their thinking in that regard, it is now much easier to put a label on a child.

Another reason, and one I am very concerned about, is the fact that our entire education system and the way we allocate resource teachers is driven by the need to attach a label. There is almost a search for a label to put on a child in order to get the resources. Again, this is driven by the fact everybody wants to get as much as possible into the system to help children with special educational needs. I spoke to one speech and language therapist who said she knew absolutely that the child in front of her did not have a specific speech and language disorder but she was able to make the child fit the criteria. That is a concern because labels are for life. Even though they are just there to provide a resource into schools, it is a very serious issue to put a label on a child, particularly if a child has been assessed as having an emotional or behavioural disturbance, or a mental health illness, specifically to get additional teaching resources into schools. We find that is one of the reasons for the increase.

With regard to the private assessment against HSE assessment, we are certainly aware anecdotally that this is going on. We know there are very significant waiting lists in regard to HSE supports, some of over a year for CAMHS supports and in regard to some other diagnostic services. We address this in our supports paper. It is one of the reasons we have to move away from the current model of allocating supports on the basis of diagnosis. It is worrying there is not a consistent assessment across private and public. People sometimes say to us they would prefer to wait until the child is a little older to see if the child has a certain condition but we know that people, because they want the resources, will go private and get the diagnosis they want.

With regard to the 118 classes, those classes were sanctioned for this year. My understanding is that they are open or they will be open soon this year, and while some might have to wait for building work and so on, they have been sanctioned for this year. The 118 were spread across 24 counties specifically for the reason mentioned, which is that we try to identify gaps. We know there are gaps but the NCSE currently does not have the ability to require a school to open a special class. This can be difficult in areas where we perceive there are gaps as the SENOs are sometimes going from school to school, telling them to please open a special class, which can be quite difficult. Increasingly, however, schools are seeing the benefits of special classes in terms of their ability to be much more inclusive and to have children in more inclusive settings in mainstream schools.

I could not agree more with the Deputy in regard to the issue around the special classes. There is a difficulty in regard to the therapeutic supports, which is an issue that has been ongoing for some time and something I have raised with the HSE. This goes back to Ms Lynch's comment about the right supports being in place. The NCSE is a very strong supporter of the current reorganisation of therapeutic supports that is happening in the HSE in terms of progressing disability services. It is developing school-based teams, which we believe is the right way to go. We are working with the HSE and are part of its national co-ordination group on that. The reality is, however, that there is a gap for children.