IPPN

Published: 17 June 2011

All Schools will be advised next week in relation to their allocation of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs).

The previous Government decided in December 2010 to cap the number of whole time equivalent posts at 10,575. At present there are 10,802 posts which is 227 over the cap to be reached by the end of 2011. This is primarily as a result of a commitment by the Department of Education and Skills to provide an additional 230 SNA posts in 13 new schools for children with autism (previously ABA Pilot centres). The Department is committed to meeting the cap figure of 10,575 by the end of this year, as per the requirements of the Employment Control Framework.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and the Department have decided to retain 475 of the 10,575 posts in order to allocate them during the coming school year for cases such as emergency and reviews, acquired injuries, new entrants to schools, arrivals from overseas or new assessments of disability or syndromes during the school year which cannot be catered for from within the schools allocation of SNA support.

NCSE priority criteria for the allocation of SNA posts include:

• ensuring that the minimum SNA to special class ratio is maintained in special schools and special classes
• ensuring support for children with incontinence issues
• ensuring those schools which require full day cover for children receive full day cover
• deferring the allocation of additional SNA supports to schools for Junior Infant pupils for whom behaviour is cited as the rationale for SNA support, other than in cases of well documented extremely challenging or dangerous behaviour *(see note below)
• prioritise schools which have enrolled pupils with newly diagnosed care needs and which do not have any SNA support
• encouraging the effective use of SNA posts, for example where two or more posts have been deployed in a single classroom