Fórsa has called for the abolition of the Statutory Special Needs Assistant Scheme and its replacement with a national SNA service with staff allocated to every school, in its latest presentation to the Oireachtas Committee on Autism policy and education.

The union said this would end the uncertainty for students and staff as to the continuation of Special Needs Assistants (SNA) supports year to year.

The union made a number of recommendations on matters relating to the services and supports provided by the State for Autistic people in its recent presentation Committee on Tuesday (4th October).

Andy Pike, National Secretary for the Education Division and Linda Kelly, National Secretary in the Health and Welfare Division made a joint representation on behalf of the union to outline the key recommendations needed to be implemented to improve the delivery of services.

In its submission Fórsa also criticised the Government’s decision against introducing Frontloading at the start of the 2022/23 school year.

The “Frontloading” mechanism would have allocated SNAs to schools based on the same criteria as SET allocations.

The union said if the system was implemented across the school system Autistic students would then be able to access SNA support without a formal assessment of need or a recognised diagnosis from a healthcare professional. This would transform service delivery massively for students requiring support.

Fórsa said this approach would also have facilitated more Autistic students transitioning into Mainstream provision from Special Classes and in theory would provide a more inclusive educational experience.

Andy said the Government’s approach to delivering an inclusive school system has been disjointed, confused, and marked by a failure to deliver on key policy commitments.

Fórsa recommended that if the Government was to proceed with measures to deliver inclusive education many other issues will have to be addressed in a strategic manner including proper workforce planning to ensure the right people are in the right place to deliver the services that are needed.

The union further recommended the availability of a comprehensive School Nursing and support service to each school delivered through the NCSE at regional level.

No real increase in support

In his briefing Andy also said mainstream classes had not seen any real increase in support as no assessments have been carried out since 2020.

“SNA allocations have in effect been frozen since 2019 in Mainstream classes. Where new posts have been provided, these have been in recognition of the opening of new Special Classes in Mainstream schools and recognition that new developing schools require resources.

“Whilst the Government decided against introducing Frontloading, the guidance on conducting in-school assessments was not withdrawn. This has led to confusion with some schools now conducting their own assessment of the additional care needs of students, whilst other schools are not doing so as they will not be provided with any increase in resources,” said Andy.

“For Autistic students and their families accessing places in Mainstream schools is now extremely difficult," he said.

Fórsa maintained that some schools need to change their organisational culture, to embrace more diversity, including neuro diversity, and highlighted the reluctance to expand Mainstream provision for Autistic students based on concerns that academic standards might be detrimentally affected.

“Fórsa believes such views need to be successfully challenged if we are to make progress toward full inclusion in our schools,” said Andy.

The union also stressed that the concept of an inclusive school was achievable.

“It requires absolute clarity of purpose from Government, with clear and deliverable policy objectives. It requires recognition that some school leaders do not want to offer places to students with additional care needs,” said Andy.

“No student, no family when making an application for a place should ever be told that ‘this is not that type of school’ or ‘we just don’t have the skills or resources to offer you a place’. Schools will all need to upskill, to change mindset and have to be properly funded and resourced to meet the needs of all students with additional care needs including Autistic students the union told the Committee,” he added.

Some of the other recommendations to the Committee included working with Stakeholders to agree a robust redeployment scheme for SNAs to ensure the right staff are in the right place to deliver the service; ensuring that the SNA workforce is properly trained and qualified to meet the need of students; continued accreditation of the National SNA Training Programme, modernisation of the minimum essential qualification for SNAs and accreditation at least at QQI Level 6; and finally the facilitation of each student with a pathway to Mainstream Class provision if it is right for them and if it is appropriate.

You can watch back the union’s briefing to the Committee HERE.