Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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283. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will increase the number of special needs assistants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35296/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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SNA support is provided specifically to assist recognised primary, post primary and special schools to cater for the care needs of pupils with disabilities in an educational context, where the nature of these care needs have been outlined in professional reports as being so significant that a pupil will require adult assistance in order to be able to attend school and to participate in education.

The care needs outlined must be of such significance that they are beyond that which would normally be expected to be provided to a child by the child’s class teacher, support teacher, or other school teachers, or beyond the level of assistance which could be offered to the student by his/or her fellow pupils in school. The care needs must also be those beyond which could normally be provided for by alternative supportive approaches or modifications of the classroom environment, teaching approaches and/or assistive technology or specialist equipment.

A key aspiration for pupils with special educational needs is that they will, on completion of their school-based education, be able to graduate as young independent adults in so far as this is possible. There is therefore a need to balance the support provided in schools with each pupil’s right to acquire personal independence skills.

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.

Responsibility for deciding on the quantum of educational supports and resources to be allocated to schools to support individual pupils rests with the NCSE. 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 care needs can access SNA support as and when it is needed. My Department’s policy is to ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support. SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools, as a school based resource.

The type of significant care needs that pupils may have can be varied, depending on the nature or level of the disability or sensory impairment that a child may have. Circular 0030/2014 sets out the primary and secondary care needs for which SNA support is provided.

The NCSE is currently undertaking a Comprehensive Assessment of the SNA Scheme, in consultation with other Departments and State Agencies, including the National Disability Authority, to identify the most appropriate form of support options to provide better outcomes for students with Special Educational Needs, having regard to the significant amount of State investment in this area.

In response to a progress report from the NCSE on this Review, I have requested the NCSE to establish a working group, comprising relevant stakeholders, to assist in proposing a better model for providing care supports so as to provide better outcomes for students with special educational needs who have additional care needs.

This Working Group will commence its work upon its appointment and the work will run in tandem with the completion of the Comprehensive Review of the SNA Scheme. It is intended that the reports of the Working group and of the Review will be completed in Spring 2018.