Ms Eileen O'Rourke:

It is kind of a complicated question to answer in some ways. Certainly, Covid-19 has had a detrimental effect on children with additional needs and teachers in our member schools have reported school refusal, severe social regression and withdrawal resulting in a refusal to come to school. I was in a hospital school last week; some of the children are there for seven to eight months. While the hospital schools do their best, what they are able to offer is maybe half an hour fitting around all of the medical needs the child has at the time. It is very difficult for children coming out of a hospital school to go 100% back into their regular school and classes without feeling lost or inadequate or that they have lost out on so much. That is very anxiety-inducing. Can I make another point?