Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to say how pleased I am to participate in this debate and how I strongly support the amendment moved by Senator Maria Byrne which deals with all the issues of concern. I hugely value the role of SNAs. In my period in government, we have seen the number of children with special needs who are supported by SNAs grow by 12,000. There has been an increase of 50% in the number of children with special needs who are getting support by special needs assistants. This reflects a commitment, by this Government and, indeed, previous Governments, to ensure that children with special educational needs get the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

I was pleased to attend the IMPACT education conference earlier this year in Cork - it is not an annual event - because I believe SNAs are truly key partners within the education system and I value their role. I have changed the system I inherited which dealt with the appointment of SNAs in the way that has been rightly criticised by Senators. Indeed, I succeeded in changing this by sitting down with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, of whom several Senators have been critical. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, strongly supported this because he, too, believes that people should have certainty in the allocation of this resource and be able to plan their future. Despite Ministers having the opportunity to deal with this for years, I got the chance to change it, and I did so. That was flagged, as the Senators will be aware, in October, long before this motion was tabled in the Seanad.

The work of SNAs is something to be treasured and valued within the school system. Let me assure Senators that having a review is not some secretive conspiracy against special needs assistants. This is being done, as the NCSE has done in respect of resource teachers, to ensure that we bring in a system that is most responsive to the needs of children and respects the role of all those who work within the system. I am pleased to be able to tell the Seanad that the working group dealing with this has a SNA on it and that the NCSE, which is an independent statutory authority charged with advising me, as Minister, has involved IMPACT in the consultations and will continue to involve a wide group of people in the consultations as it seeks to do what it has already done in resource teachers. I remind those who feel in some way locked out of what the NCSE is doing that the NCSE has a track record in that it reformed the resource teaching allocation model, which is now a much better model. The resource teaching allocation model is recognised by everyone. It is fairer and it is working better. It brings children with special needs right into the heart of the school and it becomes a core element of it. I certainly hope the result will be the same in respect of the review that the NCSE is doing of the role of SNAs to ensure that we get the best service and that SNAs are respected.

I would be horrified to think that inappropriate duties are being asked of SNAs. I would point out - it is stated in the Government amendment - that we have grievance procedures to ensure that the unions which represent SNAs can raise those grievances and have them aired and dealt with. Officials in my Department will be stringent in ensuring that SNAs are used for the purpose set out in the circulars that govern their deployment.

It is fair to say - Senator Maria Byrne recognised it - that it was before my time that a panel was put in place to give security. That is working. Contrary to what Senators said, it is not a failure. The record to date is pretty encouraging in that the number of SNAs experiencing compulsory redundancy as a result of changes in the allocations to match children in the schools under the old system was running at between 300 and 400 per year, and now it is down to on average only 45 per year. The vast majority of SNAs who want to be redeployed are being redeployed.In the four year period since the panel was introduced nearly 1,200 SNAs came up for redeployment and 84% found a place or decided not to continue. Only 16% faced redundancy. That system is working.

My Department officials met with IMPACT officials earlier this month. We will continue the dialogue with them. I recognise there was frustration about the way in which SNAs were being allocated under the old model, where Ministers for Education had to go to their colleagues, the minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in June and get a specific budget allocation that had not been provided for the year before. That created significant problems. It was a huge catch in the system. This year we have made the allocation in advance and we have decided that we will allocate 1,000 extra SNAs next year, in the same way that I allocated 1,000 this year and the 1,000 last year. This is a very firm and good system for planning for the future.

The Senators referred to the report by the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection. It is one of the elements that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, will be addressing. It raised a number of important issues. Opening up SNAs to JobBridge is no longer an issue that people would consider, but other issues arise, such as changing entry level qualifications. The entry level qualification at present is FETAC level 3 and it is required that they would be urgently examined. That is something that the NCSE will look at. It also raised the issue of mandatory training being introduced, which is not there at present. There is no mandatory special education training for any staff across the system. Perhaps we need to move to that over time. Whether one makes it mandatory or starts to introduce improvement programmes is something to be considered by the NCSE. It was also raised for consideration that the use of SNAs as a teaching assistant or learning aid be considered. I know there are different views on that and not everybody would agree with the committee on that suggestion. There is evidence from the United Kingdom that is critical of that suggestion on the grounds that it runs the risk that the relationship between the child with special needs and the teacher as the leader of learning can be severed, and that this is not necessarily advisable. The NCSE will have to evaluate whether that evidence from the UK is something that is strong, or what we should consider in that area.

I am strengthening legislation that will be introduced in this House to ensure that provision is made for children with special education needs, so that not only can the NCSE require a school to take them but we will also be taking a power that the NCSE can require a school to establish an ASD specialist unit. Those are units with one teacher and two SNAs for six children. As Senator Maria Byrne pointed out in 2011, there were about 500 ASD specialist units and now there are more than 1,200 specialist units. There has been a huge expansion in the number of units that create an environment where children with special needs can get the intensive level of support with the SNA working very closely with the teacher in the class. That model is certainly becoming more mainstream in the system compared to what it was. Approximately 60% of children with special needs go to mainstream classes but now an increasing number about 20% go to these special classes and they are certainly offering options. We are seeing the impact of this as well.

Recent figures show that school completion rates in Ireland are almost the highest in Europe and have been increasing significantly. Last year there was a very significant increase of 2 percentage points, just in one year. We are succeeding in ensuring that children who may not have gone very far in education are now remaining in education. As we saw recently in the PIRLS report on literacy, we are doing not only very well across the average, but we are particularly good at reducing the number of young people who are at very low levels of performance in literacy. Our focus on making sure that children who come into the system with difficulties are helped to achieve high standards. There is evidence that this is working. It is a real reassurance for people that the effort we have put in recent years to support literacy in our schools with the support of teachers, parents, the education policy and curricular development has been successful. I think it gives us cause for optimism in the future.

I believe we are on a good road of progress, recognising and expanding the role of SNAs, undertaking a review, which I believe, based on the track record of the work that was done with the review of resource teachers, we can have a lot of confidence in. The NCSE, under the Chairman, Mr. Eamon Stack, a former inspector in the Department of Education and Skills is undertaking that review. The work that the NCSE did on the resource teaching model actually won a public service award for being a particularly innovative piece of work that was not only innovative in its thinking but in its execution. I would be very heartened and optimistic about the work of the review. I can sympathise with Senators who ask why this was not done more quickly, but as Members are aware, the implementation of the resource teaching model took time to convince people to show the way in which it was done was the right road. We have taken time but this review will be available in the first half of next year. The work is progressing very intensively. I am confident that there will be input from people who have the experience, whether through their trade union IMPACT, SIPTU or people with their own direct experience. I will be glad to see that there is a number of inputs from individual special needs assistants who are making their own contributions and views known, so that the very best experience can be brought to bear in this review.

I assure the Senators that my commitment in this area is absolute. I have set five goals in the Action Plan for Education 2016-2019, which we have developed. One of the goals is to ensure that children who come to the education system, either at a socio-economic disadvantage or at a disadvantage because of special needs, that we will become the best in Europe at dealing with the needs of those children. It is encouraging to see that the resources we have put in during recent times, which is being supported right across the House is having a tangible impact on the performance of children. We need to continue to ensure that education does genuinely open up equality of opportunity for children.