Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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314. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the details of planned changes from the 2018-19 school year to the provision of SNA and resource hours support to children with special needs in primary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10056/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support and additional teaching resources to support individual pupils with special educational needs.

On 18 January last, I announced that a new model for allocating Special Education Teaching Resources to mainstream primary and post primary schools will be introduced from September 2017.  The aim of this new model is to deliver better outcomes for children with special educational needs. Large amounts of research, analysis, consultation with service users and stakeholders, and piloting have gone in to the development of this model and all the evidence points to the fact that this new system will deliver better outcomes for children.

Under the new allocation model schools will be provided with total allocation which includes a baseline allocation for the school and an allocation based on the school profile.  The provision of a profiled allocation will give a fairer allocation for each school which recognises that all schools need an allocation for special needs support, but which provides a graduated allocation which takes into account the actual level of need and pupils in each school.

A new Circular will be issued to schools in the coming weeks which will provide details of how the scheme will operate while details of the allocations for each school will also be provided to schools.  The Circular will also set out that the profiled allocation which are being made for schools are intended to remain in place for both the 2017/18 and 2018/19 school year, with revised profiling due to take effect from September 2019.

The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie, in order that students who have special educational needs and additional care needs can access SNA support as and when it is needed.  Responsibility for deciding on the quantum of educational supports and resources to be allocated to schools to support individual pupils rests with the NCSE.

There are no immediate plans to change the SNA allocation process, however, I have requested the NCSE to lead a comprehensive review of the SNA scheme, in consultation with other relevant Departments and State Agencies, including the National Disability Authority (NDA) and in that context to

- Identify and recommend how, in the future, the additional care needs of students, over and above those needs that could be reasonably expected to be managed by teaching staff, should be met and

- Recommend the most appropriate form of support options to provide better outcomes for students with      Special Educational Needs who have additional care needs, having  regard to the significant amount of State investment in this area.

The NCSE will report to me on the progress of this review in May 2017.