Schools expected to turn away special needs pupils if cuts hit

THE Department of Education is expecting schools may refuse to keep pupils with special needs as a cut of at least 10% in staff employed to support them is expected over the coming year.

Reviews into the work of and requirement for special needs assistants (SNAs) are already under way by the department and by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The Irish Examiner revealed in July that as many as 1,200 of the 10,500 posts in schools last year could be cut from next February, based on the outcome to-date of the NCSE review at one-quarter of the country’s 3,900 schools. A value for money (VFM) review by the department of SNA allocations and deployment is expected to be finished before the end of the year.

In an assessment of SNA posts prepared for the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure, chaired by economist Colm McCarthy, the Department of Education said the removal of SNAs “even on a moderate scale” is likely to result in significant rearguard actions by schools.

“It may result in schools refusing to continue to retain pupils with special needs and will undoubtedly attract significant adverse public and media reaction. Previous experience in the special needs area indicates that even where criteria are not met, removal of resources can be very contentious,” the department wrote.

It pointed out that, in the past, withdrawal or reduction of SNA supports, because the criteria for their retention was not being met, has led to schools refusing to enrol pupils with special needs or appealing to the NCSE for review, and representations being received from public representatives. The department added other possible outcomes of cuts in SNA numbers could include strong union reaction to large scale redundancies and public and media reactions to cutbacks, which would be perceived as targeting children with special needs.

An Bord Snip Nua’s report in July recommended a 20% cut in the number of SNAs, or around 2,000, to save around €60 million a year. A redundancy scheme operates for SNAs, who are assigned to individual pupils with disabilities rather than to the school, and are not supposed to be retained if a child’s needs no longer require SNA support.

The department’s assessment for An Bord Snip Nua, completed in March, said that the VFM review is likely to lead to policy decisions on the role of SNAs. However, further details were withheld from the documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Last year, the department, the NCSE and the Health Service Executive worked to address concerns about the reliability of some professional recommendations about pupils’ needs for an SNA. It led to a significant drop in the annual increase in SNA numbers to 3% at primary level, compared to increases of up to 15% in previous years which had matched rises in overall pupil numbers.