Dr. Fidelma Brady:

I thank the Deputy. She asked the main reasons parents are looking for and having issues with and the worry of keeping their children in mainstream schools and looking to change them to special classes or special schools. The bottom line is there is a fear their child will not get the resources they need. We are talking about this new departmental allocation going in under the pillar of literacy, numeracy and STEM scores. Children with Down's syndrome are a lot more than literacy and numeracy scores. Their needs are so complex. It ties into the Deputy's other question related to SETs and SNAs. The myriad of children with Down's syndrome's needs can be so immense that simply saying we will give them a little bit of extra help with literacy and numeracy will not do anything. It will not work. That fear parents have is the removal of criteria for complex needs not being automatically recognised as a specific pillar within the allocation. Parents are afraid that their child will actually end up just getting maybe a very thinly-spread resource allocation or SET allocation in the school which is way too small for their child.

With regard to SETs and SNAs, obviously we are all very much aware the class teacher has the primary responsibility for children's education regardless of whether they are typically developing children or children with special needs. Realistically, that class teachers may have between 26 and up to 36 other children in their class so they rely a lot on the SET for additional supports. There really should be a partnership between the class teacher and the SET so they are not both working in isolation. The SNAs, as we know in this country, are there for care needs only. It has been a long time since I was at a consultation where they looked at maybe revising the role of the SNA and developing it. We have to keep that in mind because it is a very important issue. The volume of support provided by SNAs is huge.

Parents have a fear if they are going to remove the SET allocation, thin it out and spread it out a lot more thinly, that it will impact the SNA allocation as well. I can understand where they are coming from because automatically the reaction is, "Right if it will not happen in mainstream I am changing my mind and will not enrol my child in a local mainstream school and will look in special classes in special schools." That then is another issue because very often there are not enough of them. A parent contacted me as late as this morning saying that they are now not willing to send their child to a mainstream school. They cannot get a place for that child in either the special class in another school in the area or in the local special school. I should say the "local" special school because they will have to drive for an hour and 25 minutes each way to get to that school. It is a no-brainer. Let us put the supports into mainstream and support the children in mainstream in their local area with their peers and where they will be living in the future.