Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I will discuss the very important issue of the urgent need for extra special needs assistant, SNA, allocation for Scoil Eoin in Innishannon, which is a village to the east of Bandon, between Bandon and Cork. It is a terrific national school which 306 students attend. It has a fantastic principal and staff. There is a great team. I visited in November and received a royal welcome from the staff and kids. It was fantastic. I went to visit the special classes and I spoke to the SNAs and the teachers who taught me a bit of sign language. It was fantastic to communicate with these incredible students but they desperately need extra SNA allocations. There are two special classes in Scoil Eoin. One is a junior class attended by four students which has one teacher and one SNA. The other is a class for moderate intellectual disabilities of six students with one teacher and 1.6 SNAs.

It is important to describe the difficulty the teachers and SNAs are experiencing with the lack of extra SNA provision. The four students in the junior class have high needs. They cannot feed themselves. They are not toilet trained and cannot use the toilets independently. Thus, one has situations where, between one teacher and one SNA, the SNA has to bring one of the children to the toilet or feed one of them and the teacher is left to manage the class. The considerable difficulty is that it then becomes a management role rather than one of teaching them the moderate curriculum which is what the teacher wants to do and should be doing. That is a clear example of why exactly the school needs extra SNA provision. It is similar in a second class where there are six students. There is one teacher and 1.6 SNAs. It leads to a situation in which, for the vast majority of the time, the teacher and the SNA are caring for the students' needs rather than what they really should be doing which, in the case of the teacher, is teaching the moderate curriculum.

As recently as today, I have engaged with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. I am very happy with the response it gave in that it assured me it would give the issue in Scoil Eoin its immediate attention but this needs to move fast because the mental and physical health of the teachers and staff is suffering. There are incidents of slapping and choking. The situation is quite serious and needs to move fast. The special educational needs organiser, SENO, was due to visit in October. Unfortunately, the school has had to reapply for a SNA assessment which is just gone in as recently as 25 November.

The reason I bring this up is that the situation is serious. Scoil Eoin is a terrific school of 306 kids but those incredible children in its moderate intellectual disability classes need to start engaging with teaching instead of what is happening at present, that is, a kind of management issue. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, is not here today but I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, to convey the urgency of the situation. An urgent SENO visit on site is needed to experience what I saw and experienced when I visited in November.

I thank Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan for raising this important issue as it gives me an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to outline the current position regarding the SNA allocation at Scoil Eoin National School in Innishannon, County Cork. I stress that enabling students with additional needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for this Government. In 2022, the Department of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, will spend over €2.3 billion, or over 25% of the Department's budget, on providing a wide range of schemes and supports for children with special educational needs. In 2023, this spend will be substantially increased by over 10%, meaning that the Department of Education will spend over €2.6 billion on special education. This level of educational funding and support is unprecedented and represents more than 27% of the Department's total allocation for 2023. This includes funding for new special classes, new special school places, additional special education teachers and special needs assistants.

The NCSE has responsibility for planning and co-ordinating school supports for children with special educational needs, including the allocation of SNAs and reviews, and the school should liaise with the NCSE directly in the event that additional supports are required. The Department of Education does not have a role in making individual school determinations. The special needs assistant scheme is designed to provide schools with additional adult support staff who can assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs. Such support is provided to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned or for their peers and with a view to developing their independent living skills.

SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school-based resource. The deployment of SNAs within schools is a matter for the individual principal or board of management of the school. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.

The NCSE confirmed that the school has an allocation of SNA support to provide support for children with primary care needs. The school got an increase in its special class allocation of SNA support this year of 0.83 to bring it to 2.66 and there was no change to its mainstream allocation of 3.83. The following arrangements for the allocation of SNA support in respect of students in mainstream classes for 2022-23 will apply. The SNA allocations for mainstream classes in schools on 31 May 2022 will be maintained. This will provide greater certainty for schools. There will be a process for schools to engage with the NCSE if they consider their SNA allocation is in excess of the required care needs. Schools should contact their local NCSE special education needs organiser to commence the process.

The exceptional review process undertaken by the NCSE will remain in place throughout the 2022-23 school year, where schools can seek a review of their SNA allocations, which will result in one of the following outcomes whereby no change in the level of care need, an increase in the level of care need or a decrease in the level of care need may be identified in the school. It is expected that schools will review and reprioritise the deployment of SNAs within mainstream settings and allocate resources to ensure those with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of support.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response. I appreciate that the Minister has no role in determining the extra SNA allocation for a school. That is not what I am looking for. I am not looking for the Minister to make a determination but for an instruction or some communication with the NCSE to expedite the visit of the SENO. That is all I am looking for. The SENO needs to be on-site and to visit the school to see what I saw first-hand. As I said earlier, I have engaged with the NCSE as recently as today and I am happy that it will give this its urgent attention. This needs to happen quickly. SNAs and teachers love their jobs. Teachers want to teach and to be given an opportunity to engage with the moderate curriculum which they are given to teach, but they do not have the opportunity to do that because of the reasons outlined in my first contribution. When an SNA is dealing with an individual child, the teacher then becomes a de facto SNA. The teacher should be teaching. That is what we need to get back to and focus on. It all comes down to individual needs. I appreciate the unprecedented level of funding the Minister of State outlined at the start. The funding and resources that we are providing are extraordinary but we need to see them make a difference on the ground. The key point is that we need to cater for students' individual needs.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan for raising the important matter of SNA allocation for Scoil Eoin National School, Innishannon, County Cork. I assure the House that the Department of Education is committed to ensuring that all children can access an education suitable to their needs. I reassure the Deputy that the Department of Education will continue to support the NCSE and schools through the provision of the necessary funding and capital investment to ensure all children are successful in accessing the education supports they need. I hear the Deputy's specific request about the need for a visit of a SENO on-site as soon as possible. I will certainly raise that matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan.