Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this serious and unsatisfactory situation prevailing in some special needs schools which need to provide nursing care for pupils. A total of 127 special schools cater for the education of children and young adults with mild to moderate and severe learning disability. Many of these children have serious medical needs and life-limiting conditions which means they need nursing care while at school. However, there is a disparity in the provision of nursing care in the schools. Some nurses in some schools are funded by umbrella organisations while others are funded by a HSE grant and-or by the school board of management. In a small number of cases, nurses are directly employed by the HSE. Some schools have no nursing care for pupils but are trying to get it. Some schools in receipt of the HSE block grant must stretch their funding to cover not only a nurse, but also to provide for medical equipment and supplies, anything from medical gloves and syringes to thermometers and everything in between. In some cases if nurses are not in a position to attend school then students with severe medical conditions are unable to attend school on those days. This is a very unsatisfactory situation.

The manner in which the nurse has to work in the school environment is not satisfactory and that is the reason I have raised this issue. These nurses, for the most part, are working in isolation without the support of a professional medical body. There is no medical model set out for these nurses working in a school environment. There are no prescribed best practice and procedure or policies to which such a nurse can refer. This is contrary to the situation prevailing in the United Kingdom.

The board of management of a school is presiding over the work of a nurse but without any medical expertise or guidelines I question how the board of management can do so. While the board of management can provide management accountability for the operation of the school and the employment of staff, I ask how can it ensure that professional accountability and support is in place for the nurse. There is no professional accountability.

The situation needs proper funding to allow nurses to be permanently employed. A medical model needs to be put in place to ensure best practice and policy and professional accountability in order to support these nurses. There is a need for a nurse to be directly employed and funded by the HSE in co-operation with the Department of Education and Skills. The right to education for children with severe learning difficulties must be supported by nursing care in the case of some children and young adults. However, the gap in the service has not been addressed. I ask for support and some form of framework for those nurses. The current situation is neither desirable for themselves, the boards of management nor the children and the families.

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