I welcome the opportunity to address the House this evening, to speak to this motion and provide an update on special needs assistants. At the outset, I want to be very clear: this Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs and the programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. I want to state categorically that no cuts are proposed, or will be proposed, to the provision of SNAs to children and young people across our school system. Last night, the Government met and agreed a number of measures that will give clarity to schools, parents, young people and SNAs. These measures are: all schools reviewed by the NCSE and allocated additional resources will receive them in the upcoming school year; no reductions will come into effect in the 2026-2027 school year; and the SNA redeployment scheme, the SNA workforce development plan, and changes to the 2014 circular outlining the role of an SNA will be advanced before any further decisions are taken. At the forefront of our deliberations was ensuring that the child-centred approach to the provision of special education is retained and enhanced in these policy developments. Working alongside almost 22,000 special education teachers, this September will see almost 25,000 SNAs play a key role in our schools, supporting children and young people with care needs. I know from meeting SNAs, families and young people that many children would not thrive in school without them. Their work, hand in hand with special education teachers, is paramount to helping children achieve. That is why I fully understand why we have heard a lot of genuine concern and worry over the last week from SNAs, schools and parents on how they might be affected by any changes to school allocations. We have also heard a lot of misinformation. It is important to bring clarity on some of the issues. This Government has nothing but respect for SNAs, special education teachers, schools, students and their families.
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I fully appreciate and endorse the need to ensure all special education policies are child-centred and designed to assist young people thrive in school and help them to reach their full potential. That is why the Government has provided more special education teachers and more SNAs, doubled the number of special classes, opened 16 new special schools in the last five years and massively increased investment in the summer programme, which has seen a threefold increase in its budget. To say that the Government is not funding resources for children with special educational needs is a mistruth. To say that the Government was proposing to make hundreds of SNAs redundant is simply wrong. To be clear, there are currently 23,179 SNAs working in schools across the country. Last year, there were 21,579. Next September, there will be 24,896 SNAs. Clearly, there was no proposal to make SNAs redundant. It is disingenuous of any party in this House to say so. It is useful to speak to the role of the National Council for Special Education in this area. The NCSE has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision and care support for children and young people with special educational needs in our schools. This includes the allocation of special needs assistant support to schools. I fully support the NCSE in its work. It is important to give some context on how the NCSE reviews take place. Special educational needs organisers, SENOs, are from various professional backgrounds and include occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, school principals, special education teachers, early intervention specialists, SNAs and mainstream class teachers. These SENOs undertake school reviews. The NCSE has always undertaken SNA reviews. In the 2024-2025 school year, around 1,400 reviews were conducted. In the current school year, some 1,000 reviews were completed. Schools are notified in advance of a review, and the NCSE undertakes a robust process to ensure that reviews are based on the care needs of an individual school because, as Members of the House are aware, SNAs are allocated to schools, and not individual children.
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There is no mindset in the NCSE to cut resources. The NCSE appreciates the complexities of school life and deploys leniency in its outcomes, working to retain supports available to children in schools. Among the information the NCSE requires to conduct a review are student support files for each young person. These files, which are compiled by the teacher, document an individual child's needs and their progress over time. They help inform the school in providing an appropriate level of support. Parents know what is best for their child. That is why, in addition to the student support plan, the NCSE asks that parents complete a questionnaire outlining the care needs of their child. Parents who may have difficulty in completing this questionnaire are provided with contact details for the SENO tasked with completing the school review, so their child's needs can be documented. The review process also includes consultation with staff in the school, including class teachers, special education teachers, SNAs and principals. As I previously said, the NCSE works to retain supports for children, but circumstances arise which mean that an SNA may no longer be required. These include cases where a student or students with highly significant care needs leave the school or where children in receipt of support move to post-primary level or leave school.
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There are also the obvious and best outcome cases where children, with the assistance of their special education teachers and SNAs, gain independence and no longer require the same level of support. These outcomes are what our system is designed to achieve. I reject the assertion that the NCSE operates, as one Member of this House has claimed, as an "unaccountable gatekeeper". Once a SENO has finished a school review, a national panel within the NCSE reviews this decision to ensure consistency and that care needs are being captured. If a school is not satisfied with the review, it can appeal it. This appeal is adjudicated by NCSE staff who were not involved in the original review. If a school is still not satisfied, it can request a further appeal from an independent panel, members of which are drawn from education stakeholder groups. As I said earlier, the Government has agreed that three key documents are to be published in the near future which will provide additional clarity to the system. The first is the SNA redeployment scheme, long called for by SNAs and trade unions. This will provide a method by which SNAs can be redeployed around the school system to ensure we have the right resources in the right place. This scheme is near finalisation and was developed following significant stakeholder engagement to ensure it works for SNAs and schools. The second document is the SNA workforce development plan, developed following extensive discussion and engagement with SNAs and trade unions. Development of the plan involved 55 meetings of five working groups, each of which included two SNAs, one of whom was a trade union member. There were also bilaterals with trade unions and meetings with a dedicated SNA workforce development group. Finally, a 2014 circular outlining the role of the SNA will be advanced and completed.
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After these key documents are published, the NCSE can commence reviews of supports provided to schools for the 2027-2028 academic year which will uphold the integrity of the process, which allocates supports based on the needs of children. As is the case at any stage of the year, and indeed for any school, the NCSE will be available to support schools and discuss with them the deployment of SNA resources allocated to support their students and their care needs. Schools can also request a review of their allocation if care needs change.
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I understand the anger and upset that arose this week, and I fully accept that the process and outcomes were not properly communicated. I will work to ensure-----
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-----this does not happen again. We want an education system where every child and young person feels and is valued, and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. This Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs. No cuts are proposed, or will be proposed-----
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----- to the provision of SNAs. I thank families, the school communities and the young children and assure them that this Government is listening-----
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-----and we are committed to doing the right thing.
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I am not saying that.
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I am not saying that.
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