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

This is a new scheme and I understand people wanting to tease out what it means. First, I want to make it clear that it has been recommended by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, which is an independent body, it had been conducted with a pilot of 47 schools where it had a very positive reception. It involves an increase in the number of teachers provided by 900, so at least 1,200 schools will get additional resources. It will mean that if one has a child with special educational needs, one no longer needs a diagnostic test to establish support for the child. Instead of enrolling, waiting for a diagnostic test and then eventually getting an allocation later on, the school is pre-equipped with the resource to meet the needs of the children with complex needs.

The Deputy asks how we know the level of enrolment of children with complex needs. What has been done is that a profile of the whole school has been taken, so that if X% is children with complex needs, they are provided for, even though those children have not yet presented. In other words, a profile of the school and the expected level of children who will arrive with complex needs based on the existing profile of the school is used to predict how many children will turn up with special educational needs. That is a clear and known input.

The Department has also made provision for an appeal so that if, for example, the norm was three children with very complex needs per cohort of the school and for some reason a family moved into the area and that three increased to seven then, under the appeals mechanism, the Department would clearly take that into account. Similarly if the school is very rapidly growing and a developmental school under the developmental status, that would be a criterion for the school to get additional help.

We are providing more resources in this sphere, we are guaranteeing that no school loses out so that every school will have additional existing provision. We are making sure that the school is geared up with that extra resource from day 1 and we are also promoting a much more inclusive approach to the way in which children with special education needs are integrated into the school. That has been a feature which has been particularly successful in the pilots. Instead of children being withdrawn for their special support, as had been the case, this is a much more integrated approach with group, individual, and classroom support. I was told by those who had been through the pilot that it had been a boost, not only for the children with special needs but all the children in the school, and that all the teaching staff saw that the integration and successful learning outcomes for those children with special needs became a whole school project.

We will provide support to the school in terms of capacity building. There will be an integrated support service in the NCSE. We are doing everything possible to make sure this will achieve the benefits that were clearly delivered in the pilot.

I can understand the concerns because this is a different method. Its avoids the €1,000 expense of diagnostic tests. The Deputy knows that schools in disadvantaged areas could not afford that. Principals were playing God in trying to decide which of a number of children they would send for diagnostic tests. That has all been thrown away and we have a much fairer basis for allocating the available resource.

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