Special Educational Needs

85. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth her plans for redesignation of mild general learning disability schools. [75316/26]

I am just in the nick of time. I am sorry. I am just coming from the education committee and it is always a case of having to run up the stairs to get here. I am sorry for my breathlessness but I had to run up from the committee room. I want to discuss the redesignation of mild general learning disability schools. As the Minister of State knows, the assessment of need situation is going to change. How will that affect mild general learning disability schools?

I thank the Deputy. Does the education committee clash sometimes with the oral questions?

Every time.

That was one of the practices when I chaired the education committee 20 years ago. Apologies. I recognise the important role that mild general learning disability special schools have played in supporting children over many decades. I have visited a number of those schools and met the principals. These schools are long established, well respected and acknowledged for the work they do in supporting their cohort of students. As the House knows, there has been a significant expansion in the range of supports offered in mainstream schools since many of these schools were established. Some students who once may have attended an mild general learning disability special school now have the opportunity to consider mainstream instead, whether that is with SNA support or in a special class. It is positive that options exist for families to have a choice. This does not mean, however, that redesignation across the board is being pursued. There has been some discussion and engagement in recent years around children being able to access their local special school. There are situations currently where children with additional needs travel past special schools in their locality to attend a special school further away. I think the Deputy would agree that spending a long time on school transport is not fair on the children or their families. This is due to the fact that many children may not be able to apply for admission to their local special school because they do not meet the designation of that school. The Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, have supported many schools around their designation and have afforded children with more complex needs the opportunity to enrol over the years. It is important to stress the importance of these schools and their designation. I wish to thank the schools that have worked to broaden their designation. Again, I state clearly for the House that this does not mean there is a broad plan for redesignation of all mild general learning disability schools.

I appreciate that the Minister of State has visited schools, including one in my constituency. The fear is that if we are moving to a model of inclusive education, and my understanding is that is the way the Department is moving, not all schools will be at the same space. The difficulty is we are moving in the direction of every school being inclusive, but we are so far away from that that there will be young people who are lost in our education system. What will happen with the removal of the assessment of needs is that schools will not know the need is for the child. How will they know? It seems we are putting the cart before the horse and running away with a version of how we will do it without taking into consideration what the level of need is. Recently, on foot of a documentary that was on television, I called for an audit of all the special schools and classes to see what resources they will need. We are not balanced in where we are going. We might be moving designation or saying we are going to do it in a certain way, but we are not bringing people along. That change of assessment of need is a big issue.

The work on the removal of the diagnosis, which was the subject of the first question I answered this morning, is at a very early stage. There is huge engagement right across the education sector on that. With any fundamental changes that are made on special education, we have to bring all the education partners – the school leaders, the schools and of course the families and children - on board because we have to listen to what they are doing. In the late spring and early summer period, I met many special school principals across the country at five different meetings. I heard the concerns they have and listened very attentively to what their concerns are and what the future holds. To meet the need that is coming forward in specialised education, we have to make sure we have our education system fit for purpose across the education system. As I said at the end of the debate on the last question, to be very clear, there is no broad plan whatsoever for redesignation of all mild general learning disability schools. It is important that is known.

Therefore, it is not all of them but perhaps some of them. That is fine because things change in some situations. On the removal of the assessment of need, the Department is putting forward plans, which it did at the end of September, about how that would work in schools. When will that be implemented? Will that be from next September? If I have a child and I apply to a school down the road, how are we ensuring that they will be able to provide for everything my child needs? Will they be able to assess that when my child starts in September, and then put it in place? What if there are significant needs that have already been identified? I am failing to understand how this will practically work. There is another thing I am very worried about. Teachers are experts in teaching and learning. They are not experts in clinical diagnoses or any of those things, so I am a little concerned that we are removing one level of support. There has been such a focus on getting an assessment of need to get the services that the child is supposed to get, but now we are removing it and shifting a lot more responsibility on the schools.

First, the engagement on the assessment of need is at a very early stage. This is a fundamental piece that we are looking at. It cannot be changed unless we have the entirety of the education partners on board and they are satisfied that what we are doing is robust and is not putting pressure on any single aspect. I am acutely aware of that but I want to assure the Deputy that we are working very closely and are listening very carefully to the concerns in this regard. The parent notifier portal was opened in July this year for 1 September. The number of children who will need specialised education was notified to the NCSE on 1 September and we are continuing to receive that information. We have that. There is no change whatsoever. I want to reiterate that any changes that will be made will be made with the agreement of all concerned. It is crucially important that we get this message out.