Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

5. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how he expects to update the plan for implementation of the Education For Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act to prioritise access for children with special needs to an individual educational plan in view of the reduction in such services in recent years and the increase in demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32499/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The recently published National Council for Special Education, NCSE, policy advice on supporting children with special educational needs acknowledges the current economic climate makes it unlikely the Government will be able to implement EPSEN in the near future. However, the NCSE report makes recommendations on how changes might be introduced, including in respect of individualised planning for students, which brings EPSEN implementation closer. The report recommends that additional teaching and special needs assistant, SNA, care supports allocated to schools should be deployed on the basis of individualised educational plans, which demonstrate the requirement for this support and the way in which it will be used to benefit the student.

The report makes 28 detailed recommendations which are interesting and significant. They deserve in-depth and detailed examination and exploration. I have asked my Department to review carefully the recommendations, including the recommendation relating to individualised education planning, and to report back to me on them.

I understand from the Inspectorate of my Department that the majority of schools already use individual education planning to support children with special needs and the Department currently supports schools in the use of individualised planning through policy guidance, support, training and inspection.

I wish to advise the Deputy that the level of resources devoted to supporting children with special educational needs has been maintained at €1.3 billion this year. This includes provision for 10,575 special needs assistants, SNAs, and nearly 10,000 learning support and resource teachers. These resources have been protected despite the ongoing severe financial position.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I understood this issue would be one of the key priorities in the programme for Government and it is disappointing to say the least that from what I hear from the Minister it is unlikely to happen within the lifetime of this Government. The SNA is an important aspect of the individual educational plan but it appears that a fragmented approach is being taken to many other areas, and that is not entirely within the Minister's own remit. For example, sometimes children will require speech and language therapy. I am dealing with a school where the Health Service Executive has refused to provide the service within the school, which is a special school, and the children have to be marched down to the health board.

Other ancillary issues arise. For example, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has provided the early child care preschool year but the children who find it the most difficult to take up that year are those who require an SNA or other supports. A fragmented approach is being taken. Is there a linkage between the HSE and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs regarding those aspects? Are there any prospects of at least pulling them together under one centralised system?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The original Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act was very ambitious in its objectives, as everybody recognised at the time, and when it was commissioned by the previous Government it was not all commissioned at the same time because of resources. My struggle at the moment, as the Deputy and other Deputies in the House are well aware, is trying to minimise the reductions I have to deliver to meet this country's overall budgetary targets while we remain under the supervision of the troika. However, leaving aside that broader view, there is also the internal operational difficulty of the co-operation between the HSE on the one hand and the education providers on the other, which has not been satisfactory and probably never has been satisfactory if truth be told. I can communicate with my colleague, the Minister for Health, on this matter but I know there are difficulties operationally on the ground in that we cannot force the HSE to deliver the speech therapy services in the special needs school to which she refers. All I can do is take details of it from the Deputy and see if we can get the delivery of those services, which is within the skills remit of the HSE and not the Department of Education and Skills, to the point where they are most effectively delivered.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is often the case that when adults fight with each other the children are the losers in terms of the delivery of these services. I will pass on the information to the Minister on the particular case but it is not the particular case I want to highlight. Very often this is a postcode lottery, so to speak. The National Council for Special Education and the special educational needs organiser, SENO, will only be as good as the resources available in any given area. Where they are deficient in an area or where there is a dispute, that is where children run into difficulty. It is critical that the relationship between the HSE and the Department of Education and Skills is addressed and got right but I agree with the Minister. I do not believe it has ever functioned properly.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's point. As we know, there is a massive reorganisation going on in the health services but prior to that reorganisation when the HSE was established there was dissatisfaction from many of the people who were trying to access a holistic service for children with special educational needs. Great progress was made by different Administrations in regard to the education side of the equation but it is fair to say that not the same progress was made on those aspects of the service that came from the health sector side.