Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 518: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the terms of reference in place for the review of special needs assistant allocations; if there is a mechanism in place for parents to express their dissatisfaction with the allocation of these hours; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38305/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support children with special needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

The NCSE will undertake to review a decision taken by a SENO on foot of a request from a school or parents/guardians, when accompanied by relevant additional information, which may not have been to hand at the time of the decision. The NCSE has outlined this process in its Circular 01/05.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.

In addition, the Deputy will be aware that there is a Value for Money and Policy Review of the Special Needs Assistant scheme underway at present. It is expected that the review will be completed during 2009. The terms of reference for the review are as follows:

(1) Identify the objectives of the SNA Scheme and the role of an SNA.

(2) Examine the relevance and continued validity of these objectives and role as they relate to the objectives of the Department's Strategy Statement in "providing a range of resources and supports for learners with special needs".

(3) Define the outputs associated with the SNA scheme and examine the duties allocated to and undertaken by SNAs in the context of the objectives of the scheme.

(4) Examine the extent to which the objectives of the SNA scheme have been achieved and the effectiveness with which these objectives have been achieved.

(5) Identify the level and trend of costs associated with the SNA scheme and comment on the efficiency of the scheme.

(6) Evaluate the degree to which the objectives warrant the allocation of public funding on a current and ongoing basis and examine the scope for alternative policy or organisational approaches to achieving these objectives on a more efficient/effective basis and make appropriate recommendations for change, if necessary.

(7) Specify potential future performance indicators that might be used to better monitor the performance of the SNA scheme.

(8) A VFM review should not, as a general rule, recommend an increased resource allocation for the programme concerned. Where, in exceptional circumstances, it is proposed to recommend such an increase to deliver better overall VFM, the Department's/Office's overall Steering Committee (or MAC) should be consulted in advance and should identify possible savings and/or additional income on other lower priority programmes (for the Department/Office concerned or another public body) that would be sufficient to meet the additional costs involved: full details of these offsetting measures should be included in the VFM review report.