Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Spending on provision for children with special educational needs has been prioritised in recent years, despite the enormous pressures on the public finances. Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to €1.4 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. This has increased by 10% in the past two years. It provides for a range of supports and services, including additional learning and resource teaching support, access to care support, special transport arrangements, building adaptations, enhanced capitation, the purchase of specialised equipment and the services of the National Educational Psychological Service. The funding also provides for enhanced levels of capitation in special schools and special classes and additional teacher training, and home tuition support for pupils with special educational needs who are awaiting a school placement.

This year, 12,040 special needs assistants are available for allocation to primary and secondary schools to the end of the 2015-16 school year, which is an increase of almost 14% in the number available since 2011. There are currently more than 11,800 learning support and resource teacher posts in mainstream primary and post-primary schools, providing additional teaching support to pupils with special educational needs. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has allocated 6,832 resource teaching posts to mainstream schools this year, which is an increase of 29% since 2011. In addition, more than 150 new special classes have been opened for the 2015-16 school year. The combination of supports provided in mainstream schools, along with the increased special school and special class provision, mean that school places are available for all children with special educational needs, regardless of their level of need. There is still along way to go and, as committed to in the programme for Government, I plan to examine the adequacy of the present policies and provision and their scope for improvement, particularly with regard to speech and language difficulties and early intervention.

1. Total special educational needs, SEN, spend:

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
SEN Spend	€1,287 billion	€1,287 billion	€1,276 billion	€1.272	€1,383 billion
% of total Department of Education and Skills spend	14.7%	15%	15%	15.5%	16.5%

2. Resource teachers

Numbers 2015-2016: 6,852

Provision 2016-2017: 7,452

Overall cost: €411 million in 2015-16; €447 million in 2016-17

Resource teaching, RT, allocations from 2011 to 2015-16

School Year	NCSE RT employment control framework cap	RT allocation rate	NCSE RT allocation	Approximate cost
2010-11	No cap	100%	5175	€310.5 million

School Year	Cap	Allocation rate	Primary RT posts	Post-primary RT posts	Total posts	Approximate cost
2011-12	5,265	90%	3150	2115	5265	€316 million
2012-13	5,265	85%	3062	2203	5265	€316 million
2013-14	5,745	85%	3304	2417	5721	€343 million
2014-15	6,225	85%	3558	2645	6203	€372 million
2015-16	6,705(6852)	85%	3965	2856	6821	€409 million
2016-17	7452	85%	4013	3006	7019*	€421 million

3. General allocation model, GAM

Numbers for 2015-16: 4,273 at primary school and 742 learning support posts at post-primary level.

Overall cost: €300 million

GAM and learning support allocations 2009-2015

Year	GAM	Post-primary learning support	Total	Approximate cost
2010/11	3800	654	4454	€267 million
2011/12	3800	675	4475	€268.5 million
2012/13*	4138	725	4863	€292 million
2013/14	4154	728	4882	€293 million
2014/15	4217	737	4954	€297 million
2015/16	4273	742	5015	€300 million

*From 2012-13, GAM and post-primary learning support allocation are also provided for English additional language support. Since that time, the GAM has been updated annually based on increases to mainstream classroom teaching posts, which are based on school enrolments.

4. Special needs assistants

Numbers 2015/2016: 12,040

Demand 2016/2017: 975

Overall cost current: €403 million

Additional cost for 2016: €8.5

Additional annual cost: €25.8 million

Direct cost of SNA programme, 2010-2015

Direct costs	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Est. direct cost (€, million)	332	341	354	372	402
Number of students	22,284	24,029	25,559	27,266	29,953
Est. cost per student (€)	14,899	14,191	13,850	13,643	13,421
Number of whole time equivalent SNAs*	10,260	10,443	10,609	11,115	11,864
Est. cost per WTE (€)**	32,360	32,653	33,369	33,468	33,885
Student to SNA ratio	2.2	2.3	2.4	2.5	2.5

*The number of whole time equivalent, WTE, SNAs refers to calendar year-end figures of SNA and also excludes 60 SNAs working in the early childhood disadvantage programme.

**Whole time equivalent costs are estimated by dividing the estimated direct cost of the programme by the number of WTE SNAs in the scheme in that school year. For example, in 2011 the cost of the scheme was €332 million, and at the end of school year 2010-2011 there were 10,260 WTE SNAs, which gives a WTE cost of €32,360. Figures are inclusive of employers' PRSI.

SNA cap

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	June 2016
SNA cap	-	10,575	10,575	10,745	10,965	11,940	12,040

SNA growth in comparison to demographic growth

Year	Allocation in September	Allocation at end of school year	Increase	Demographic increase in overall pupil numbers
2010		10,543
2011	10,117	10,320	-2.1%	+1.9%
2012	10,390	10,487	+1.6%	+1.8%
2013	10,480	10,656	+1.6%	+2.4%
2014	10,984	11,154	+3%	+1.7%
2015	11,820		-+5.9%	+1.7%
		Cumulative	+10%	+9.5%

5. Special Schools

Number of schools: 125

Number of children attending: 7,949 in the 2014-15 school year; 2015-16 figures being finalised by the statistics section.

6. Special classes:

Number of primary and post-primary schools with special classes from 2011-2012 to 2015-2016

	2011/2012	2012/2013	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
Pupils	3,286	3,684	4,353	4,706	5,472
Number of schools	338	378	429	477	558
% of total schools	9%	10%	11%	12%	14%*

*Based on the provisional number of primary and post-primary schools for 2015-2016

Type of special class	2011/2012	2012/2013	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
ASD	296	364	439	531	647
ASD early intervention	34	49	72	96	118
Moderate general learning disability	31	28	39	39	48
Multiple disabilities	3	5	5	8	15
Multiple disabilities	0	0	0	5	5
Severe emotional disturbance	1	1	1	2	2
Hearing impairment	15	16	16	15	16
Hearing impairment early intervention	0	0	0	0	1
Severe-profound general learning disability	9	10	10	10	9
Emotional disturbance	8	6	7	9	8
Physical disability	1	1	1	0	0
Specific speech and language disorder	64	64	64	63	63
Specific learning disability	13	13	16	12	12
Mild general learning disability	73	71	67	65	64
Total	548	628	737	855	1008

7. NCSE

Budget: pay: €6.425 million; non-pay: €1.7 million

HQ staff numbers: 20

SENO numbers: One senior SENO manager, nine senior SENOs, 70 SENOs

Grade	Posts sanctioned pre-ECF	Current
Head office
CEO	1	1
Principal officer	4	4
Assistant principal officer	6	3
Higher executive officer	5	5
Executive officer	5	3
Staff officer	1	1
Clerical officer	3	3
SENO
Head of local services		1
Senior SENO	12	9
SENO	86	70
Total	123

Board numbers: 13 members, with at least six women and at least six men.

NCSE council term expired on 31 December 2015.

Chairperson, Eamonn Stack, re-appointed on 8 January 2016.

12 members to be appointed.

Summary of increases 2011-2015

Year	2011	2015	Increase	% increase	2016-17
Resource teachers	5265	6821	1556	29.5%	7019
LST	4454	5015	561	12.6%
SNA	10,260	11,864	1604	15.6%
Special classes	548	1008	460	83.9%
Pupils with SNA	22284	29953	7669
Pupils in special class	3286	5472	2186
Special school		7949
NCSE (HQ)		20
SENO		80

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