Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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613. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the proposal from the NCSE that school principals and or teachers would carry out assessments of the needs of students. [55428/22]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Following on from a court ruling in October 2021 there is now a legal obligation on the education system to assist the HSE as part of the HSE’s Assessment of Need Process (AON).

The Department of Education and NCSE have worked intensively to ensure the process put in place adheres to legal obligations arising from the HSE’s AON process and is one that is rooted in existing good practice in schools.

On foot of ongoing engagement the Department and NCSE advised stakeholders last week (27 October) that the trialling process which began earlier this year would continue for the educational component of assessment of need (AON) process which is currently taking place at school level. As is the case of any measure required to comply with legal obligations, the Department engaged with the unions, management bodies and a number of schools prior to the introduction of the trial AON process in schools. Engagement occurred in June to inform unions and management bodies of this process and continued with feedback on the trialling process to stakeholders in September. The Department is committed to ongoing engagement on this process.

This trialling is being led by NCSE and supported by the Department’s Inspectorate and the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS). The Department and NCSE are satisfied that the information provided as a result of this engagement will meet the requirements as set out in the AON process.

Work will continue with stakeholders to finalise an education focused AON process.