Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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133. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the assistance available to a person (details supplied) in County Roscommon with regard to the educational needs of their child; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11137/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Ensuring that children with special educational needs are supported and given the opportunity to reach their full potential is a key priority for this government.

My Department's policy aims to ensure that all children with Special Educational Needs, can have access to an education appropriate to their needs, preferably in school settings through the primary and post primary school network.

Such placements facilitate access to individualised education programmes which may draw from a range of appropriate educational interventions, delivered by fully qualified professional teachers, with the support of Special Needs Assistants and the appropriate school curriculum.

All state-funded primary and post primary schools have been allocated additional resources to provide for children with special educational needs enrolled in school.

In 2018, almost €1.8 billion will be invested in Special Education, nearly one fifth of the overall Education budget, and up 43% since 2011.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is a separate statutory agency, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports.  The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. 

SENO responsibility includes planning and coordinating the provision of education and support services to children with special educational needs. Each SENO works in an assigned local area with parents, schools, teachers, psychologists, health professionals and other staff who are involved in the provision of services in that area for children with special educational needs. In dealing with parents of children with special educational needs, SENOs will keep parents informed of what resourcing decisions are being made on their child’s behalf. The SENO will also discuss any concerns that parents have about the present or future educational needs of their child. Contact details for all SENOs is available at .

As such, all pupils with learning difficulties have access to additional teaching support in school.  It is a matter for schools to monitor and utilise their allocation of additional teaching support to best support the needs of identified pupils, in accordance with the Department's guidance. The teaching time afforded to each individual pupil is decided and managed by schools, taking into account each child's individual learning needs.

On 1 September 2017, the new Special Education Teaching allocation model was introduced, which provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on a school’s educational profile. This allocation allows schools to provide additional teaching support for all pupils who require such support in their schools and for schools to deploy resources based on each pupil’s individual learning needs.

The new allocation model gives greater flexibility to schools in relation to the manner in which they use their resources. Schools may deploy special education teachers in a variety of ways in order to effectively meet pupils’ needs, for example, in-class support, small groups, team teaching or withdrawal.  

The SNA scheme is designed to provide recognised schools with additional adult support staff 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 and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills. 

The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014. 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 additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources. SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school based resource.

My Department provides funding to schools towards the cost of assistive technology for pupils with special educational needs in Primary, Post Primary and Special schools for personal computers and specialist software for educational purposes under the Assistive Technology scheme, as set out in my Department's Circular 0010/2013.  This Circular states that equipment is provided under the scheme for children with more complex disabilities who require essential specialist equipment to access the school curriculum, which they do not already have, or which cannot be provided for them through the school's existing provisions.

Other supports available to schools include:

- the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) delivers a consultative, tiered service delivery model to schools, in line with international best practice for the effective andefficient delivery of educational psychological services that best meet the needs of all pupils/students in schools.  This service delivery model allows NEPS psychologists to support schools to provide an effective continuum of support to meet the needs of pupils/students. 

- NCSE’s Support service brought under their control, the Special Education Support Service (SESS), the National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS) and the Visiting Teacher Service for children who are deaf/hard of hearing and for children who are blind/visually impaired (VTSVHI). The Support Service provides advice and support to schools on the education and inclusion of students with special educational needs, providing in-school support for support teachers, continuing professional development for teachers, and support to schools on the management of challenging behaviour. It will also enhance the multi-disciplinary capacity of the education system through providing access to expert knowledge in areas such as autism, speech and language therapy and challenging behavior.

- Special school transport arrangements.

- Enhanced capitation grants for special schools and special classes attached to mainstream primary and post primary schools.

- Modification of school buildings.

My Department is not aware of specific concerns relating to provision for the child to which the Deputy has referred. I am also advised that the child has not come to the specific attention of the NCSE.

Details of supports provided by the NCSE to all schools is available on a county basis on its website at www.ncse.ie.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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134. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) has refused to refer a child for an assessment for special needs supports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11138/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Following a pilot which demonstrated strong support from principals, teachers and parents, my Department introduced a new model to support pupils with special educational needs in our schools.  The new model differs significantly from the old Resource Allocation Model, as schools are now front-loaded with additional resources based on the profile of each individual school.  This means that the Department has allocated special education teaching support directly to schools to enable them to respond to pupil needs without having to wait for an assessment to allow them to apply for additional resources.  School can now respond to individual need in a flexible way and pupils do not have to have a psychological assessment or a diagnosis of a disability in order to access Special Education Teaching.  It also means that those with highest level of need can access the highest level of support within the school.  Medical or psychological assessments will still be used to assess a child’s needs, or the nature of difficulties they may have. However, an assessment, or diagnosis, will no longer be needed to access additional teaching support in schools.

I can inform the Deputy that my Department’s National Educational Psychological Service provides educational psychological support to all primary and post-primary schools. This involves direct support in the event of a critical incident, access to national and regional support and development work to build school capacity to support students, access to a NEPS psychologist for responses to queries arising, and access to individual pupil casework via a NEPS psychologist or through the Scheme for the Commissioning of Psychological Assessments. (SCPA).

In common with many other psychological services and best international practice, NEPS has adopted a consultative model of service. The focus is on empowering teachers to intervene effectively with pupils whose needs range from mild to severe and transient to enduring. Psychologists use a problem solving and solution oriented consultative approach to maximize positive outcomes for these pupils. NEPS encourages schools to use a continuum based assessment and intervention process whereby each school takes responsibility for initial assessment, educational planning and remedial intervention for pupils with learning, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Teachers may consult their NEPS psychologist should they need to at this stage in the process. Only in the event of a failure to make reasonable progress, in spite of the school's best efforts in consultation with NEPS, will the psychologist become involved with an individual child for intensive intervention or assessment.

This system allows psychologists to give early attention to urgent cases and also to help many more children indirectly than could be seen individually. It also ensures that children are not referred unnecessarily for psychological intervention.

I have made enquiries with my Department's National Educational Psychological Service in respect of   the child, the subject of the Deputy’s question and can inform him that as late as last week the child's case was raised by the school with their assigned NEPS psychologist and that following on from this approach an assessment is being scheduled later in this academic year.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.