Dr. Harold Hislop:

The Deputy has raised an important issue about the effectiveness of the special needs assistant and the teaching resources for children with special educational needs. International evidence suggests that the best people to work with children with special educational needs are those who are most highly trained and, therefore, the teaching staff so the degree to which one can maximise face-to-fact contact between the student and the teacher is the best way to ensure the best outcomes for the child. That means if one wants to support the child in the longer term, and get the very best outcomes, it is better to put the resources, to a greater extent, into providing teachers, and huge numbers of teachers have been put into the system, rather than into special needs assistants. There are some children who obviously have physical and other needs so a special needs assistant is absolutely vital to them for either toileting or mobility reasons. It is important that the provision of special needs assistants does not get between the teacher and the student. The evidence from a lot of international studies is that special needs assistants or classroom assistants can, in some cases, become a barrier between the teacher and the child. So it is really important that the emphasis is placed on the provision of the teaching, and teaching of a very high skill, for the good long-term outcomes of the child.

The age of the child is relevant as we talk about special needs assistants. Young children often do need a special needs assistant and often benefit from one. For the psychological and long-term well-being of the child, as the children become older many do not want a special needs assistant. If one is not careful in how that is managed, the children feel they are being undermined in their own development and maturity because of a special needs assistant tagging along. It is a really delicate operation to choose when and when not to use the special needs assistant. The very best people to make decisions about that are probably the principal of the school and the teachers involved.