Pilot Schools and Non-Cooperation
Recently, the Fórsa Education division was made aware that a planned ‘pilot project’ was to be launched in a number of schools in the Kildare/Wicklow/Dublin area, following a media report.
Given that the outcomes of this pilot project could have been used to change the nature of the SNA role, Fórsa felt that it had no choice but to issue a general non-cooperation instruction to members who may find themselves involved in the pilot project.
The union warned the Department of Education and Skills that its SNA members will not cooperate with a proposed special needs assistants’ (SNA) pilot project unless there is consultation and engagement with the union.
To be clear, Fórsa is not averse to exploring ways to advance the SNA role with the Department of Education. We undertook a major engagement with SNAs in relation to the NCSE review to gain insights into SNAs own views on the proposed changes. Some 4,000 SNAs participated in that process in late 2018.
At the very least, however, we expected to be included in discussions before anything that could change the nature of the SNA role was rolled out. When it became clear that the pilot projects may begin before discussions were held, we had no choice but to issue the non-cooperation instruction and Fórsa subsequently wrote to every school in the pilot area.
We have since discovered, however, that the pilot had already commenced in a number of areas. It is being referred to as an "Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist" ("O/T and S<") pilot scheme. Again, as this pilot project potentially changes the nature of the SNA role, it's vital that SNA representatives are consulted beforehand.
We have communicated our position to the Department of Education. How such additional or changed work practices might impact on SNA terms and conditions needs to be understood before such a pilot scheme is implemented.
Fórsa is always willing to sit down with the Department to discuss ways to advance the SNA role. In return it is only right and fair that SNAs get to consider how any such changes might become cause to consider improvements to SNA terms and conditions.
We will continue to update our SNA members on this issue.
Archived issues
Since April 2018 we've been publishing a special segment focussing on contract issues facing SNAs. Devised and written by assistant general secretary Seán Carabini, it has proved to be one of the most popular items in the Education news bulletin.
We've archived all of these items for ease of access, and will publish an updated archive in each future edition of the bulletin.
If you have SNA contract issues you'd like to see covered in the bulletin, please contact us here and include 'SNA contract issues for the news bulletin' in the subject heading.
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