Mr. Brendan Doody:

On quality assurance, a whole structure is in place for schools in respect of school self-evaluation guidelines, which is a process all schools are expected to undertake annually to identify the areas of need in the school, and to address those areas of need by putting measures in place that are then reviewed and so on and so forth. We have provided the Looking at Our School quality framework for all primary and post-primary schools. It is a very important document because it sets out what highly effective practice looks like across a range of domains in the school, namely, leadership, management, teaching and learning.

Included in that would be the school's offer in respect of inclusive practices, etc. However, there is external quality assurance, and that is the role of in the inspectorate as well.

In terms of specific focus on the quality of provision for young people with special educational needs, the inspectorate applies two specific inspection models: one at primary level and one at post-primary level. They are relatively new inspection models. The primary one was introduced in 2016, and the post-primary in 2019. Obviously, there was a big hiatus during the Covid period but in time, we will have a lot of information regarding the quality of provision for young people with special educational needs arising from those inspection models. The composite findings of those inspection models feed into the policymaking function of the Department.