Ms Derval McDonagh:

I will respond to the first question on investment in education. We frequently hear about the increases in the number of SETs, SNAs and so on. As Mr. Harris mentioned, we were starting at a very low base, so we cannot be at a stage yet where we are congratulating ourselves for the investment when really we are playing catch-up. In addition to that are the issues faced by children during Covid, which we have not recovered from. We cannot pat ourselves on the back yet for the investment. Hand in hand with that, I am always perplexed by the fact that we congratulate ourselves on the investment but we have yet to look at the education outcomes for children with intellectual disabilities and autistic children within the systems we have set up. What we hear from family members every day is that there is a lack of ambition for children. The focus on literacy is not there. The focus on what will happen after school and how students should have a right to a good life and perhaps go on and get a job, or not, or just have a high-standard, high-quality education is just not in the system now. We need a careful analysis of where this investment is going and what it is achieving for children. We should be looking at the highest quality education for disabled children, not patting ourselves on the back because a child got a school place. That is the lowest bar we should set at this stage in the game. It is criminal that children are applying to 20 or 30 schools just to access a basic right that is in our Constitution. It is criminal that families are spending their days, weeks and months fighting for basic services and supports. Every time I hear “investment”, I want to hear about what it is getting for these children. They deserve the absolute best and, unfortunately, our survey results tell us they are not getting that now. There is a disconnect between what the policy is saying and what children are experiencing. When only 14% of children who respond to our survey are thriving in school, we know there is a real problem that needs to be looked at.

To the Deputy’s point on complex needs, the terminology is “complex needs” and, as Mr. Harris pointed out, the focus is on the child as having complexity as opposed to on the system that needs to figure things out, provide the reasonable accommodation and step up and support the child. It is not the child who should have to bend and flex to suit the system; rather it is the system that needs to bend and flex to suit the child. We need to move way beyond this conversation about putting the onus on the child to change or putting the complexity on the child and start looking at the grown-ups in the room and what we need to do to make it better for them.