Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This motion seeks to draw attention to a group of workers who have become a vital cog in our education system. As definitions of educational need evolve so too does the range of services that we need to provide a holistic approach to developing the child. I refer, especially, to developing and caring for children with disabilities or other special needs. This means other skills are needed to work in co-operation with the core activities of teaching. In the past, when we referred to the staff of a school, we generally meant teachers. This view is to ignore other workers who contribute to the essential smooth running our modern school system and, of course, this includes special needs assistants.

Special needs assistants are allocated to schools to work with children who have specific care needs. They provide non-teaching care support but, inevitably, this involves them in the teaching process as well. SNAs support pupils who have care needs resulting from a disability, an educational disability, a behavioural difficulty or significant medical need. This might include a significant impairment of physical or sensory function or where the child's behaviour makes him or her a danger to themselves or other pupils. A pupil's need could range from needing an assistant for a few hours a week to needing a full-time care assistant.

SNAs may work with more than one child and in more than one school and they may work part time or full time. Most special needs assistants tend to be needed throughout the working day, which results in working non-stop from start to finish. This intensity of work needs to be recognised. This motion draws attention to what we might call a parallel universe that exists in many schools. Special needs assistants do not have the standards of employment enjoyed by their teacher colleagues and many of them have very poor terms and conditions of employment.

SNAs thus require security of tenure in their jobs and to have guaranteed work in one location or within a reasonable local area. They also need to be a given a service day, or days, to attend courses and to upskill their expertise in order to deliver to their maximum capacity. SNAs may need to have expertise in autism, dyslexia, spina bifida, scoliosis or a myriad of other conditions. Almost 35,000 students with additional care needs are supported by more than 14,000 special care need assistants in schools across the country each day. This motion - which focuses on SNAs - points out that they do not have job security. They can be let go at any time and the last SNA employed is usually the first to be let go. This is in spite of the extraordinary work they do in assisting with the care of pupils with disabilities in the educational context. I refer also to the role they play in supporting children who have additional care needs to attend school and participate fully in school life.

I welcome the announcement in May of the 1,000 extra special needs assistants being allocated to schools in the autumn to help meet the needs of vulnerable students. The Minister has said that this means that every child who needs SNA support will receive it. This is a laudable objective. It is equally important that SNAs are properly paid, have decent contracts and good conditions. If the Minister delivers on his commitment, 15,000 SNAs will be working in our schools by the end of this year, which is a 42% increase on 2011. That sounds impressive but in reality we are playing catch up following our austerity years.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has proposed broadening the role of SNAs, which is now limited to care needs. I understand it is proposed that SNAs assist with the delivery of speech and language and occupational therapy. This is to be welcomed. This means that the qualifications required to become an SNA must rise and existing staff would have to receive additional training. There is also a plan that SNAs be renamed special inclusion assistants to reflect their focus on developing students' independence. I also propose that an alternative would be school class inclusion assistants to give that educational component to it.

These proposals have to be generally welcomed. Change, however, needs to be implemented carefully and in consultation with other stakeholders. There are subtle differences between primary and secondary special needs assistants and these need to be recognised in their job descriptions and skill sets. In the past, the overlapping of the role of SNAs with areas teachers felt were within their remit gave rise to difficulties and these need to be sorted out. One of the proposals from the National Council for Special Education is to provide access to a greater range of supports and making expertise available in regional teams to support schools. I hope these teams are designed to include special needs assistants in addition to school management and teachers.

If we take a small rural school for example, it might have just one or two pupils requiring the services of a special needs assistant. It can happen that the special needs assistant might have no further work when that child leaves to go to secondary school or for many other reasons. On the other hand, if SNAs are part of the permanent local or regional team, then they can be allocated to schools according to need. It gives them security of tenure and it seems to be a sensible way to make the best use of resources.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, has said that the Department of Education and Skills will begin to develop proposals to implement the recommendations of the comprehensive review of the special needs assistants scheme. He added, though, that it would take a number of years to implement and this proposed delay worries me. Why is it that any useful proposal has to take an eternity before it is implemented?

I urge the Minister to proceed with that review as quickly as possible.

The current spending on special needs assistants, SNAs, is €525 million. The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, estimates that the changes proposed would cost an additional €40 million per year. The proposed changes should be phased in over a period of time. Inevitably, improving the scheme will cost money, but it will be money well spent. Investment in special education saves us money in the long term. Research shows that early intervention with appropriate supports results in dramatically improved educational outcomes for children with special needs.

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