975 extra Special Needs Assistants Required by end of 2017

Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton TD has announced the provision of 975 additional Special Needs Assistants. The extra posts will be available for allocation to schools over the period September 2017 to December 2017. The number represents a 7.5% increase in SNA provision towards meeting the level of assessed demand. It brings the total number of Special Needs Assistants to 13,990 the highest ever number, an increase of 32%, from 10,575 to 13,990 since 2011. The increase reflects the growing participation of children with special educational needs and will support their full participation and progression within the educational system. Improved model for providing care supports The Minister also announced the establishment of a working group, comprising relevant stakeholders, to assist in proposing an improved model for providing care supports to provide the best possible outcomes for students with special educational needs who have additional care needs. This process in respect of SNAs follows a similar process which was led by the NCSE in respect of resource teachers, the other main support for children with special educational needs, over recent years, which culminated with the development and rollout of the new model of allocating resource teachers earlier this year.  It is intended that the reports of the Working group and of the Assessment will be completed in Spring 2018. In broad terms, Special Needs Assistants are responsible for looking after the care needs of children with special needs, while resource teachers are responsible for supporting them in their educational needs. Making the announcement Minister Bruton said: “Special needs assistants have continued to play a key role in helping children to participate and progress. The extra posts I am announcing today will ensure that every child that needs access to SNA support can receive this support. That is my priority. The NCSE will now proceed to notify schools of their SNA allocations for the coming 2017/18 school year and will publish details of these allocations on their website www.ncse.ie today. This decision is being made now to ensure that each child that is assessed as needing SNA support receives access to such support for the commencement of the new school year. This will ensure that children with special educational needs may be enrolled and take up their places in September. Supports for Children with Special Educational Needs

• In 2017 the Department of Education and Skills will invest €1.68 billion in special education, almost one fifth of the entire education budget. This is a 32% increase since 2011.
• The number of Special Needs Assistants has increased by 32%, from 10,575 to 13,990 since 2011.
• The number of Special Classes has increased by 120% with over 600 new special classes opened since 2011, bringing the total number of such classes to over 1,100.
• The new model for allocating Resource Teachers to schools has been successfully introduced, with 900 additional resource teachers allocated from September 2017 to support the model and to ensure that children with special needs can access additional teaching supports.

Supporting Children with SEN to Progress

• Estimated total Students with SEN across school settings have increased by some 21% since 2011.
• There are 700 more children with special needs entering Third-level education now than two years ago, up 31%.

Source: https://careersportal.ie/