Written answers

Thursday, 10 November 2016

Department of Education and Skills

Special Educational Needs Staff

Photo of Carol NolanCarol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of resource teachers that will be required to fully implement the new resource allocation model, assuming each child receives 100% of the recommended hours; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34246/16]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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On 27thOctober, the NCSE announced that following the second round of resource teaching allocation support for the 2016/17 school year, 7430 resource teacher posts have now been allocated to schools.

The provision to increase this current allocation of 7430 posts, from 85% to 100%, would cost approximately 1311 additional teaching posts, at approximately €78.5M per annum, for a full year cost.

It should be noted that the current number of resource teacher posts which have been allocated to schools, which is 7430 posts, has increased by 41% since the 2011/12 school year, at which point 5265 posts were allocated.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has a statutory role under the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 to provide me with policy advice in relation to matters concerning the education of persons with special educational needs.

The NCSE identified that the current model for allocating resource teachers to schools is potentially inequitable, because access to the range of professional assessments required for the diagnosis of low incident disabilities is not always readily available to those who cannot afford to access them privately. The NCSE has also advised that the current model can lead to unnecessary labelling of children from a young age.

The NCSE has proposed a new resource teaching allocation model which will, when introduced, remove the formal requirement for diagnostic assessment to access additional support and which will provide resources to schools based on school profiles.

Given that the NCSE has recommended the introduction of a new allocation model, it is considered that the best use of any additional resources will be to provide for the introduction of the new model, as opposed to revisiting the allocation basis of the old model.

As part the recent Budget announcements, I announced that following development and piloting over the past number of years, a new model for the allocation of teaching resources for children with special educational needs will be implemented from September 2017.

An additional €18 million will be provided in 2017 to provide for around 900 resource teacher posts.

This equates to an increase of 12% above the 7430 resource teacher posts currently allocated to schools for the 2016/17 school year, or an increase of 7% over the total combined allocation of resource teachers and learning support posts, of appoximately 12,500 posts, allocated to schools in 2016/17, either though NCSE allocations, or through general allocation.

Further details regarding implementation of the new model will be announced in the coming months.

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