Dáil debates

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Special Educational Needs

6:15 pm

Photo of Pauline TullyPauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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32. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 which, despite being a central pillar of the national disability strategy, has never been fully commenced, meaning that children with disabilities cannot access assessments with a right of appeal or individual education plans on a statutory basis; if she is satisfied with the lack of progress in respect of the Act; the action she will take to fully commence the Act; the timeframe for this action; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40164/20]

Photo of Pauline TullyPauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister of State to outline the position in respect of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, more commonly referred to as the EPSEN Act. It has never been fully commenced despite it being a central strand of the national disability strategy. Children with disabilities and learning needs cannot access assessments with a right of appeal or individual education plans on a statutory basis. Do the Minister of State and the Department have any plans to fully commence that Act?

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Several sections of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 have been commenced. The commenced provisions include those establishing the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and those providing for an inclusive approach to the education of children with special educational needs. As the Deputy stated, the remaining sections of the Act have not yet been commenced. However, the Government has continued to invest in the area of special education support.

Next year, the Department will invest approximately €2 billion in the area of special educational needs. That is one fifth of the Department's budget and an increase of more than 50% since 2011. Since the EPSEN Act was enacted, the Department’s policy on supporting children with special educational needs has changed and evolved on foot of evidence-based policy advice from the NCSE which takes account of international perspectives. Significantly, the focus of special needs education provision has changed from a model that is diagnosis-led to one which is driven by the needs of the child. This is a substantially different view from the one underlying the EPSEN Act. The levels of investment by the Government in special education have increased to facilitate the underlying reforms required to implement and embed the needs-based approach. This change is evidenced by the introduction of new allocation models for special education teachers and special needs assistants.

The Deputy may recall that I recently published my action priorities for the coming years. One of those key objectives as Minister of State with responsibility for special education is to carry out a review of the EPSEN Act. This review will take into account the extent of additional investment made in special education services since 2004 and the move towards a needs-based approach. I will also work with colleagues in the Government to ensure there is a joined-up approach and a continuum of support for all children with special educational needs.

Photo of Pauline TullyPauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister of State mentioned, some aspects of the Act were commenced, such as that providing for the establishment of the NCSE.

I understand the NCSE prepared an implementation report back in 2006 that set out the sequence in which the remaining provisions of the Act should be commenced and estimated a level of investment, at that time, for their implementation. It was planned to implement the remaining provisions by 2010 but a decision was taken in 2008 to suspend that implementation. I am not sure exactly why that was done. It may have been to do with the level of investment that was required. An independent appeals element was established in the form of the Special Education Appeals Board, but when the term of the inaugural board was up, no new board was formed. It just seemed to end at that point and there were elements that were supposed to commence which did not.

The Minister of State outlined the level of investment that is in place and pointed to changes that have been made. There has been much speculation around when the Act will be fully implemented and calls by a number of representative groups, on behalf of children with special needs, for a full commencement. Will the Minister of State undertake to publish a plan indicating whether the remainder of the Act is to be implemented or if something will be put in place? We need to know exactly what is intended to be done.

6:25 pm

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that I only recently published my action priorities. As I said, one of those priorities is to conduct a review of the EPSEN Act in its entirety. The premise of the review is that in the 16 years since the enactment of the Act, we have moved substantially away from the diagnosis-led model to a needs-based model. One of the reasons that some provisions of the Act were not commenced was a cost consideration. The NCSE and the Department estimated that, over a period of years, it would have cost some €235 million per annum to implement and commence all Parts of the Act that have not yet been commenced. My review will involve an assessment of the areas where special education needs policy has evolved since the introduction of the Act and a consideration of how best to progress aspects of the Act on a non-statutory basis. I will also be looking at new challenges in the area of special educational needs that have arisen since 2004.

Photo of Pauline TullyPauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The failure to implement the Act fully or put something similar in its place runs contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Under Article 4 of the convention, the Government is obliged to ensure that children with a disability are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of their disability. We need to provide a more inclusive society in all aspects of life and that includes education.

The new Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters, which was established last month, has a very important role of overseeing the full implementation of the convention. At a recent meeting of the committee, I asked a question about the future of the EPSEN Act. The representative of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission replied that it was the view of the commission that the Act was outdated and not fit for purpose. The representative of the National Disability Authority, however, said that the Act needs to be fully implemented in order to fulfil our role under the UN convention. Which view is correct? I accept that the provisions of the Act will need to be updated to reflect, as the Minister noted, that 16 years have passed since its introduction. However, it remains the case that, where it is practical, we need to integrate children with disabilities into mainstream education. We know mainstream provision does not suit all children with special needs but, where it does and where children choose to avail of it, we must ensure they have the support to allow them to access mainstream education.

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I have two questions concerning certain things that are happening at this time. The first relates to the new model for the allocation of special needs assistants. My experience is that where schools experience a sudden relative increase in the number of children with identified special needs in a classroom, the model is not responsive enough. It was previously the case that if a child with autism joined a class, he or she would be guaranteed to be assigned an SNA. That does not seem to be the case at the moment. In addition, there is a still a bias against girls in the allocation of SNAs and special education teachers. I have never understood the basis for that bias and I still do not understand it. Will the Minister of State comment on that issue?

Second, the Minister of State mentioned some of the changes that may be coming under the progressing disability services programmes, including the establishment of disability teams. A significant concern of special schools is that they will lose their multidisciplinary teams under these changes. Can the Minister of State give a commitment that this will not happen as the progressing disability services initiative is expanded throughout the country?

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Taking Deputy Tully's questions first, the review I intend to conduct of the EPSEN Act will be a review of the legislation in its entirety, including the Parts that have been commenced. It is my view that section 2, which relates to inclusive education, still stands. It states:

A child with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs unless the nature or degree of those needs of the child is such that to do so would be inconsistent with- (a) the best interests of the child as determined in accordance with any assessment carried out under this Act, or

(b) the effective provision of education for children with whom the child is to be educated.

That sums up the approach in regard to special education in general in a nutshell. I will be using it as the premise on which I conduct my review.

I understand Deputy Ó Laoghaire has tabled a later question specifically relating to the provision of SNAs. I will check out the bias to which he referred in regard to special needs provision for girls. On the allocation of SNAs, it is always open to schools to engage with the exceptional review process if they feel they have not received a sufficient allocation of SNAs. The numbers were frozen for this year and there was no impact because of Covid. I secured an allocation of €14.7 million in the budget to allow for the immediate replacement of an SNA who is absent for any reason.