Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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593. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to introduce a statutory body to inspect special schools and units in order to ensure safety and an optimum level of care for children with special needs while in school, particularly in view of the fact that inspectorate reports and recommendations arising from whole-school evaluations are not always fully implemented by some schools which have been inspected, and the fact that the children with special needs in these units and schools are particularly vulnerable, with many of them having little or no communication skills; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15576/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Inspectorate of the Department of Education and Skills has statutory responsibility under Section 13 of the Education Act 1998 for the inspection of schools, including special schools and I have no plans to introduce an additional statutory body to inspect special schools and units. A small number of special schools operate in tandem with facilities where residential care is provided for children in care; in these circumstances, the work of the schools is inspected by the Inspectorate of my Department while the residential care facilities are inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). Reports arising from both types of inspections are published.

The care of all children while in school, including the care of vulnerable children and children with special educational needs, is the responsibility of the board of management and staff of each school. Responsibility for acting on recommendations made in school inspection reports rests primarily with school management and with the patron body which appoints the school's board of management. Since 2012, a follow-through model of inspection has been implemented to determine the extent to which schools have implemented the main recommendations in inspection reports, and the follow-through inspections conducted to date indicate a high level of implementation. In addition, where serious deficiencies are identified in schools, the school is referred to the Department's School Improvement Group for more intensive engagement and monitoring.