Report raises concerns over mislabelling of special needs children to secure resources

A new report has raised concerns about the mislabelling of children with special needs in order to secure resources.

The National Council for Special Education has carried out a major review of schools.

It has found some children wait for over a year for a diagnosis and others find it hard to secure a school place.

The NCSE is recommending a new system for allocating resources based on the individual needs of children rather than their disability category.

It has also raised concerns that the current system puts pressure on the HSE to diagnose children - even if there is no clinical evidence to support it - just to secure resources.

The Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn says the diagnosis should not be the trigger for help.

Quinn said: "The actual designation of a condition shouldn't be an automatic trigger. The intention is that we reach out to and provide learning support for the one in four people in our population who learn differently."