Discussions between Fórsa and the Department of Education and Youth on the new Special Needs Assistant (SNA) redeployment scheme are close to being finalised. 

The new arrangements will provide for an offer of redeployment to be made to SNAs in posts declared surplus following the announcement of the SNA allocations by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) for September 2026.  

In order to facilitate the introduction of redeployment, the SNA allocations have to be announced by the end of February. This is the reason for the short timescale for processing the exceptional reviews requested by schools.  

In March the NCSE will begin the process of assembling a national redeployment panel, which will be hosted on a new IT platform. This will contain details of the schools with vacancies and of the SNAs who may have been deemed surplus in their current school. The platform will enable the NCSE to provide details to those schools with vacancies of any SNAs available for redeployment within a 45km radius.  

The redeployment process will conclude by the end of May to enable SNAs to take up new posts at the start of the next school year (2026/2027). The NCSE will host a webinar for SNAs over the coming weeks to explain how the redeployment process will work.  

Current indications are that many new special classes will be opening in September and the overall number of SNA posts allocated across schools will increase by 1,700, as announced in the October budget.  

Therefore, the union is not anticipating significant numbers of SNA posts being declared surplus, and where any post is affected, the opportunity for redeployment will provide a genuine alternative to redundancy for members. Schools will be required to use the redeployment panel to fill all SNA vacancies, including those arising from retirements and resignations, before proceeding with local recruitment once the panel of SNAs within the 45km limit is exhausted.  

Fórsa will provide briefings for members on exactly how the new system will work as soon as the Department publishes the redeployment Circular which is expected to issue over the coming weeks.  

Head of the Education division Andy Pike said: “The establishment of a redeployment process for SNAs delivers a key objective for the union. Our SNA members have sought greater job security or many years, and the new redeployment scheme will provide this, whilst preserving the rights of SNA members to opt for redundancy if that is their preferred option.” 

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