Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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514. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what her plans are to deliver on the Programme for Government commitment to "collect data to create more targeted, effective services for children with special needs"; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17244/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Inspectorate conducts a comprehensive programme of inspection which encompasses whole-school evaluations, but also specific inspection work in special education. The outcomes of inspection work are presented to the Department in the form of composite reports which are intended to provide an overview of the quality of provision in the particular area as well as providing recommendations to the Department and to the school system more broadly.

In addition to the work of the Inspectorate, research conducted by NCSE supports the Department’s provision of funding and teaching / SNA resources for the system.

In-person engagement by NEPS with schools, supports the provision of high-quality education appropriate to the needs of learners.

To further support the Department’s planning, the Department of Education has established a new review group to consider the topic of educational outcomes for children with special education needs including the measuring, monitoring, and publishing outcomes.

This group is considering the topic of educational outcomes across a range of areas including student engagement, attainment, attendance, happiness, independence and progress for all students.

The intended outcomes of the group include the development of a framework for schools that will enable them to monitor and record outcomes in these areas.

Recognising the critical importance of evidence informed policy making, it is also intended that the framework will be sufficiently flexible such that school level information and data will be available to the Department as a means of informing policy for students with special or additional needs.

In tandem with this, the NCSE Research and Evaluation team together with Visiting Teachers of children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) students or Blind/Vision Impaired (BVI) have undertaken a study of outcomes for students who have availed of the service.

The NCSE’s Research and Evaluation team will report on school leavers who are DHH or BVI who have left school in 22/23 or 23/24, to establish their post-school pathway.

It is anticipated that initial findings from this analysis will be made available to the Department imminently for consideration and will also inform the work of the working group on educational outcomes.

Finally, the Department intends to use learning and outcomes from a range of pilot programmes currently in operation to inform the development of policy for students with special or additional needs, such as:

• The CES Transitions pilot currently taking place in 41 special schools aims to support the transition of students into adult life. This pilot is currently being externally evaluated and the findings will inform policy development in this important area.
• Towards Inclusion, funded through the Dormant Accounts Fund can be seen as the first step towards a more inclusive education system. The participating schools, a mainstream school partnering with a special school have been invited to develop projects and work together to support interaction between the students and teachers. Initial findings from the pilot have been extremely positive.
• Supporting students with exceptional abilities is a priority for this Government. The Department is currently progressing a number of initiatives including Saibhriù, a Dormant Accounts funded pilot programme that will establish clusters to examine best practice in this area.