Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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971. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on whether the workload is too onerous on principals and boards of management in relation to the building of school extensions, whether for ASD special classes or to remove need for temporary accommodation; and the steps that her Department is taking to ensure that the workload is limited, streamlined, and consolidated wherever possible. [29387/22]

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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972. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she plans to consider a more streamlined system for schools to apply for funding more easily for ASD special class extensions to school buildings; if an economy of scale has been considered for school extensions, that is that her Department would be able to consolidate projects across the country and order in bulk to achieve economy of scale; and if analysis has been carried out to consider the benefits and disadvantages to such an arrangement especially pertinent given the significant lack of special class places that still remains across the country. [29388/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 971 and 972 together.

I wish to assure the Deputy that the provision of appropriate accommodation for pupils with special education needs is an absolute priority. I wish to acknowledge the valuable work being done by school principals and wider school authorities in expanding the educational provision for pupils with special educational needs including the required physical infrastructure. I would like to assure the Deputy that the supports for school principals and communities who are supporting children with special education needs is kept under constant review.

The Department is working actively with the NCSE and other key stakeholders including School Patrons and Management Bodies to provide additional special classes and special school places for the 2022/23 school year so that the remaining gaps in provision from the current provision of circa. 99% to the full 100% is achieved as quickly as possible.

My Department has close engagement with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) which has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. When the NCSE sanction a special class in a school, the school can apply to my Department for capital funding to re-configure existing spaces within the school building to accommodate the class or to construct additional accommodation. The purpose of my Department’s Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom and Special Education Needs (SEN) accommodation is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation. While it is open to the school authority to make an application for additional accommodation through the ASA scheme, my Department works closely with schools in order to minimise the amount of information required and to fast-track to the maximum extent possible the application for funding for reconfiguration of existing capacity for special classes in particular.

The NCSE has additionally provided my Department with projections of future requirements for classes for students with special education requirements. These are informing my Department's advance planning for special class accommodation which will enhance the opportunities for synergy and minimising the number of projects managed at school level. This advance planning is building on the significant work to date in delivering additional classrooms for students with special education needs. Such classrooms for pupils with special education needs are included as standard in the accommodation brief for new school buildings and major extension projects, unless local circumstances indicate that they will not be required.

In terms of the delivery of building projects, my Department has a number of delivery programmes utilising various procurement methods including individual open market tendering, restricted two stage tendering, design and build and procurement framework arrangements. These methods of construction procurement are selected to suit the various types of school infrastructure requirements based on scope, complexity, programme, location and value for money. My Department’s construction procurement methods are continually reviewed in light of these constraints. “Bulk ordering” of construction infrastructure is problematic due to the bespoke nature of individual school sites and the specific educational requirements of various schools. Furthermore, this method of procurement can lead to calls of restrictive tendering practices which is against EU and national procurement rules.

In order to assist school authorities and principals with the undoubted workload associated with capital projects, my Department funds external stakeholders engaged in the devolved delivery of building projects for individual schools. These stakeholders such as Patron and managerial bodies, Educational Training Boards and local authorities are funded to procure project managers and services in order to enhance their other support functions to schools on whose behalf they can either deliver projects directly or assist schools in delivering projects. Many school patrons are also funded to employ building officers who advise and support schools regarding how best to manage and address their accommodation requirements.

Since 2020, each primary school with a teaching principal has been provided with a minimum of one release day per week, with four additional release days allocated to schools with a special class. Measures announced in Budget 2022 will see administrative principals in primary schools that have two or more special classes from September, regardless of the school’s enrolment. Since the lifting of the moratorium on posts of responsibility in 2017, 1700 additional leadership posts have been invested in our primary schools, which has led to 1 in 3 teachers now holding promoted positions. The Department has committed to annually revising the allocation of Posts of Responsibility to take into account retirements during the school year which ensures that the current level of Posts of Responsibility are maintained in the school system. Measures to assist school leadership at post primary include additional posts of responsibility to enable Deputy Principals to be more fully available to assist the school principal with the leadership of the school and the appointment of an additional Deputy Principal in schools with pupil enrolment in excess of 700 pupils or 600 for DEIS 1 post primary schools.