Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Special Needs Assistant (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 National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating a quantum of SNA support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.

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 , in order that students who have care needs can access SNA support as and when it is needed. The Circular provides details of the primary care needs for which SNA support will usually be provided and details the types of secondary care associated tasks which SNAs may often perform.

In considering applications for SNA supports for individual pupils, the SENOs take account of the pupils' needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additional SNA support is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources.

The consideration of professional reports is an integral part of determining the extent of supports to be provided for pupils with special educational needs; medical or relevant professional reports should indicate the outcome of assessments carried out and the range of needs of the child as clearly as possible, Health staff have, however, been directed by the HSE not to include references to the specific quantum of educational resources in their reports. Whereas professional reports provide valuable assistance to education providers in identifying a diagnosis or identifying appropriate interventions, the Health professional will not have knowledge or awareness of the current resources available to a school to cater for these care needs, will not be aware of the layout of the school, or have had an opportunity to observe the child in class or observe their interaction with their teachers and classmates on an ongoing basis.

It should be noted that SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource.

The NCSE has advised all schools of their allocations for SNA support for the 2017/18 school year. Details of SNA allocations which have been made to schools have been published by the NCSE on their website at .

Where a school has received its allocation of SNA support for 2017/18, but wishes new enrolments or assessments to be considered, which were not taken into account when the initial allocation was made, they may continue to make applications to the NCSE.

In circumstances where a school, or parent, is unhappy with the allocation of SNA support which has been made, or considers the level of support allocated is not sufficient to meet the care needs of the pupils concerned, the school or parent, may appeal that decision via the NCSE appeals process, details of which are set out at . The closing date for receipt of appeals is the 29th September 2017.