Dáil debates

Tuesday, 9 July 2019

Special Educational Needs: Motion [Private Members]

 

11:00 pm

Photo of Paul KehoePaul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I share Deputies' views that children with special educational needs should be supported to access the education system. The education system is for every child, irrespective of his or her level of needs or ability. As a Government, we fully recognise the importance of an inclusive and all-embracing education system and never is it more important than in the case of children with special educational needs. Government policy on supporting children with special educational needs aims to ensure that all children with special needs can have access to an education appropriate to their needs. Policy is to provide for inclusive education and to ensure the maximum possible integration of children with special needs in ordinary mainstream schools. Where pupils require more targeted intervention, special class or special school placements are also provided.

Significant levels of financial provision are made each year to ensure that all children with special educational needs can access education. The Department of Education and Skills spends approximately €1.9 billion, or almost 19% of its total educational budget annually, on making additional provision for children with special educational needs. The main supports the funding provides for are more than 13,400 special education teachers in mainstream schools providing additional teaching support for pupils with special needs, more than 15,000 special needs assistants supporting care needs, 125 special schools and more than 1,450 special classes in mainstream schools, an assistive technology scheme to provide assistive technology supports and equipment, and special school transport arrangements.

Teacher training and continuing professional development, CPD, in the area of special education are also an important component of ensuring that children with special educational needs can be supported in schools, as has been reflected in the motion. There have been substantial developments in recent years, both in initial teacher education, ITE, and in CPD for serving teachers, to support teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the specific needs of children with special educational needs. In fairness to Deputy Rabbitte, she highlighted that while there have been significant developments over the years, we need to go further, as other Deputies have also noted. Inclusive education, including the education of children with special educational needs, is already a mandatory part of the standards for ITE. The Teaching Council’s accreditation process for ITE programmes is the mechanism through which the council can satisfy itself that its standards are being met through a given ITE programme.

A range of additional training and supporting educational provisions are also provided to schools by the support services of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. The remit of the NCSE is to develop schools' capacity to support students with special educational needs and to promote a continuum of educational provision that is inclusive and responsive. The NCSE support services provide additional professional development supports for teachers who teach children with special educational needs. In this way, the NCSE fulfils a vital role in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in the area of special needs provision. CPD and other in-school supports provided by the NCSE are designed to enable teachers to adopt evidence based approaches to teaching students in special and mainstream classes and special schools. The focus of professional development is on enhancing teachers’ understanding of the nature of the special educational need and the learning and teaching implications for each individual student and teacher; enhancing teachers’ use of a variety of interventions and teaching approaches for students based on the assessed needs of students and taking account of empirical research; and enabling teachers to assess, plan and implement effective and differentiated teaching strategies with a view to meeting the needs of students through individualised planning.

Where a child experiences challenges that affect his or her education, schools may also seek support from the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. NEPS works with schools through the DEIS continuum of support framework. The NEPS model of service works through a problem-solving and solution orientated consultative approach to support schools to meet the needs of individual pupils. NEPS sanctioned psychologist numbers have grown from a base of 173 whole-time equivalent posts in 2016 to 194 posts at present, of which 186 psychologists are in place. This represents the highest number of psychologists employed in NEPS since the service's inception in 2000. The Government remains firmly committed to the maintenance of a robust and effective educational psychological service. As part of budget 2019, the Minister announced the provision of an additional ten psychologist posts to NEPS from next September, bringing the overall number to 204 posts. Recruitment for 2019 and 2020 is under way to fill both existing vacancies and provide for new posts to realise the target of 204 posts.

The motion calls on the Government to engage with schools and teachers' representatives to ensure that schools have adequate provision to provide every child with an education. Section 20 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 provides that one of the functions of the NCSE is to advise the Minister for Education and Skills on matters relating to the education of children and others with disabilities and to consult voluntary bodies and stakeholders in doing so. Under A Programme for a Partnership Government, the Minister for Education and Skills also committed to consulting stakeholders. The NCSE has published a number of policy advice papers in recent years that have made recommendations aimed at developing a better educational services for children with special educational needs. Policy advice reports include the NCSE policy advice on supporting students with special educational needs in schools, published in 2013; the report of the working group on a proposed new model for allocating teaching resources for pupils with special educational needs, published in 2014; and the comprehensive review of the special needs assistant scheme, published in 2018. In developing such policy advice papers, the NCSE consulted widely with stakeholders, disability representative bodies and parent bodies. In bringing forward proposals for the implementation of the recommendations contained in these reports, the Department of Education and Skills also consults widely with education partners and stakeholders.

Following consultations with education partners, a new model for allocating special education teachers to mainstream schools was introduced from September 2017. Under the new allocation model, schools are provided with a total allocation for special education teaching support based on the school’s profile. Schools are front-loaded with resources to provide supports immediately to those pupils who need it without delay. This means children who need support can have that support provided immediately rather than having to wait for a diagnosis. It also means that under the new allocation model, children do not have to be labelled with a particular condition to qualify for extra teaching assistance. It gives greater freedom to schools to give extra teaching help to the pupils who most need it, irrespective of their diagnosis. As recommended by policy advice, the new allocation model moved from a diagnostic based allocation process to a needs based process, whereby schools will allocate resources from a set profiled allocation based on the individual needs of pupils. The Department will also consult education partners in respect of the implementation of the recommendations contained in the comprehensive review of the special needs assistant scheme.

To further support schools, schools will also receive a 5% increase in capitation from September 2019. Over the course of the school year 2019-2020, an additional €10 million will be allocated to primary and post-primary schools, of which €4 million will be allocated in 2019. This increase is the beginning of the process for the restoration of capitation, which is one of the actions included in the Action Plan for Education 2019.

Tonight’s motion also called on the Government to create a plan to roll out speech and language therapies in schools nationwide. Speech and language therapy services are currently provided for children who require this service by the Health Service Executive. However, a demonstration project to provide in-school and preschool therapy services has also been taking place over the course of the 2018 and 2019 school year. The project has been developed by the Departments of Education and Skills, Children and Youth Affairs and Health, along with the Health Service Executive, and it is being managed and co-ordinated by the National Council for Special Education. The purpose of the project is to test a model of tailored therapeutic supports by providing speech and language and occupational therapy within educational settings. This innovative pilot will complement existing HSE-funded provision of essential therapy services.

I thank everybody for their contributions and for raising these matters. It has provided an opportunity to outline to the House the Government’s commitment to ensuring children with special educational needs are provided with every opportunity to fully participate in and benefit from the education system. I confirm the Government will not be opposing this motion.

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