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School says children 'may have to remain in their wheelchairs' due to SNA cuts

The Dublin primary school has warned parents that there will be “a serious disruption of services” in September.

A DUBLIN PRIMARY school that caters for children with complex needs has warned parents that there will be “a serious disruption of services” from September onwards due to the removal of one teacher and two special needs assistants (SNAs).

Sandymount School is run under the patronage of Enable Ireland.

In a letter recently sent to parents, and seen by TheJournal.ie, Arthur Farrell, Secretary to the Board of Management, told parents the move “will be a great loss to our school”.

In the letter Farrell said that from September onwards children “may have to remain in their wheelchairs because of a lack of staff to safely transfer them”.

He wrote: “Our capacity to offer swimming every day will be curtailed and we may not be able to offer standing, horse riding, or placing children in specialist equipment when they need a break from their wheelchairs.

“At present the senior boys and senior girls are toileted by male and female SNAs respectively. From September I will not be able to guarantee that this will continue and that the senior females may have to be changed by male SNAs and senior males may have to be changed by female SNAs.”

He added that the school’s “capacity to allow all children have lunch together in a safe manner will not be possible”.

There will be 38 students enrolled in the school in September, with six class teachers and 15.25 SNA posts, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) said. Five children are due to leave the school this year and three new pupils are set to begin attending.

In a statement sent to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Sandymount School said representatives from the school met with the NCSE in April, when they were informed about the reduction in staff numbers for the 2018/19 academic year.

The spokesperson said the school was told that the reduction was due to the implementation of the 1993 Special Education Review Committee (SERC) report.

“It is the school’s view that this report is 25 years out of date and does not meet the needs of special education children in 2018,” they noted.

‘Staff work tirelessly’

The spokesperson stated that Sandymount School “provides a specialist and highly technical service for children with physical and complex medical disabilities”.

Our pupils are at the centre of all our work and staff work tirelessly to ensure that children are educated and cared for with dignity and respect. Children attending our school require extensive nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy to maintain a school placement and are not catered for in mainstream education.

“The ratios of staff outlined in 1993 do not cater for the modern school or the place of children with disabilities in our society.”

The spokesperson said the school is “acutely aware that the needs of the children attending Sandymount School has increased significantly over the years”.

“While our pupil numbers are reducing by two this year, the school’s new and existing pupils present with a high level of care needs which cannot be sustained with the ratios of 1993 or indeed 2013.”

The school’s spokesperson added that “a small increase” in staffing ratios would have “a significant impact on the quality of the education and care of our pupils”.

A spokesperson for the NCSE told TheJournal.ie that the reduction in employees at the school “takes account of the numbers of students enrolled and their disability profile”.

“Based on the student information provided by the school, the NCSE is satisfied that the revised allocation is sufficient to meet the needs of the students for the coming academic year.”

The spokesperson confirmed that representatives from the NCSE met the school’s principal in April “in advance of issuing the decision in order to signal the potential implications to the allocation arising from the reducing numbers and changing student disability profile”.

“The management and deployment of the SNA support allocated to a school is a matter for the school and should be managed by the school in a way that appropriately provides for the significant care needs of the students. Schools are required to plan and record how those care needs are supported using personal pupil plans,” they added.

15,000 SNAs 

On Wednesday, Education Minister Richard Bruton welcomed an NCSE review into the national SNA scheme.

“Ensuring children with special educational needs are given the opportunity to fulfil their full potential is a key priority for this government.

There will be 15,000 special needs assistants working in our schools come this September. This is a 42% increase on 2011, when the number of SNAs stood at 10,575.

“The government now invests €524 million in SNAs annually, as part of a total €1.75 billion investment that we invest in special educational needs overall,” Bruton said.

He noted that the review “also found that there is some frustration regarding the narrow focus of the scheme” which the NCSE suggests “should be expanded, for example, to enable SNAs to meet student learning, emotional and social needs; and/or to include students without a diagnosis of disability but who have additional needs; and to deliver speech and language and/or occupational and/or physiotherapy programmes”.

1749 Richard Bruton_90544483 Education Minister Richard Bruton Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

When asked about the situation at Sandymount School, a spokesperson said the Department of Education’s policy is to “ensure that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support”.

“In considering applications for SNA supports for individual pupils, the NCSE take account of the pupils’ needs and consider the resources available to the school to identify whether additionality is needed or whether the school might reasonably be expected to meet the needs of the pupils from its current level of resources.

SNAs are not allocated to individual children but to schools as a school-based resource. SNA allocations to all schools can change from year to year as children with additional care needs leave the school, as new children with additional care needs enrol in a school and as children develop more independent living skills and their additional care needs diminish over time.

The spokesperson added that a parent or school can appeal to the NCSE if they believe that the organisation, in applying department policy, “has not allocated the appropriate level of teaching support to the school to meet the educational needs of the children in the school concerned”.

“Where a school has received its allocation of SNA support for 2018/19, but wishes new enrolments or assessments to be considered, which were not taken into account when the initial allocation was made, they may continue to make applications to the NCSE.”

The closing date for receipt of any appeals in relation to SNA allocations is Friday 28 September 2018.

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26 Comments
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    Mute William Bryan
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 9:04 PM

    The Government said they were hiring hundreds of SNAs, someone is telling porkys.

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    Mute Charliegrl80
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 9:21 PM

    @William Bryan: All an election ploy to get votes, in one school in Clonmel they said they will lose 3 SNA’s – But the government can seem to find money at the drop of a hat when they are put under pressure, except for our most vulnerable people in this Country.

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    Mute Sorcha Ní Dhea
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 10:34 PM

    @William Bryan: the amount of SNAs to be employed every year. The difference in what is employed and what is need is still huge unfortunately. Makes the the department look very good until you see real stories like these.

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    Mute Jonathan Whelan
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 9:14 PM

    That is unbelievable, children who have overcome so many challenges just to be able to attend school are being treated like this?? There is a serious issue with our social system when an “able bodied” person whom chooses to not contribute by working and just draws dole and gets handed housing for a fraction of cost get looked after day in day out and there is no recourse for them. Yet there is no money for special needs children whom just want to get on with life and contribute.

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    Mute happinessnow
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 10:40 PM

    Minister Zappone, brought 20 male supposedly under 18’s here from Calais at a cost of €300,000 per year, they were in a safe country. Disabled kids in this country matter little to our government, they like to pretend to the world we are a wonderful country, well not to our disabled kids, shocking what’s let happen to the disabled in this country

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    Mute marg fitzgerald
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 10:56 PM

    Hockey pitches for private schools cost money so others need to step back.

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    Mute Graham
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 9:26 PM

    Love how they gloss over the fact that SNAs are assigned to the school. In practice this means SNAs assigned to a special class in a mainstream school can be taken off said class and the students therein and redistributed elsewhere

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    Mute bings
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    Jun 3rd 2018, 1:16 AM

    The gov has offered that number of sna positions. But they never said that these positions were full time SNA positions. Most will be a few hrs offered to a school but called a new position. The gov or SENO hasn’t stated the number of SNA’S who have lost their job’s. How many of these positions are f/t & how many are p/t or how many are just a few extra hrs given to a schoo, center or special school. As someone who is an SNA I work with 3 children in different classes in the school. We had an P/T SNA also but she has lost her job & come sept I will be the only SNA in the school again. I will be covering teachers lunch breaks every day, working with the 3 children who have an SNA. Yard duty for each break every day. Not haveing time to take my own break due to having to work with so many children in the school. Just like every other SNA in every school the length & breath of ireland. Until the minster for Education & the SENO have a child with special can they understand how important an SNA is to a child. SNA’s are the forgotten person in a school. Dont get me started on the 72 hrs we have to be available to work, We are often asked to pick up litter around the school yard, clean out PE sheds, clean tables, windows, floors, toilets, organise display boards, even asked to clean out the staff room presses, the list is endless, I was asked to wash the PE equipment in the PE shed. I said if the teachers are willing to help me then under no circumstances will I do it. I know of a school where the principal lays down the law as to where the SNA’s can park their cars on a public road. The list is endless as for asking unions to step in this can come back to bite us on the rear. My rant for the day as I’ve been asked to do all of what i’ve posted here in my comments Including where to park my car on a public road.

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    Mute Siobhán Ni Mhurchú
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    Jun 3rd 2018, 2:16 AM

    @bings: never a truer word said ..100% spot on !

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    Mute Tracy Dunbar Evans
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    Jun 3rd 2018, 2:31 AM

    Sadly often Sna’ s are utilized as classroom assistants.Once an Sna is assigned to a school it is up to the school who the Sna’s time is spent with and can be sent to help another teacher for part of the day.If a child is sanctioned a full time Sna this does not mean his Sna will be with that child all day.Where reports use to recommend a full time Sna often they now say access to an Sna. That one Sna could be assigned to 2 children needing full time access, that had been sanctioned.On paper it says both children have fulltime Sna but really it’s partime.The government need to step up and give more resources to schools.

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    Mute Siobhán Ni Mhurchú
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    Jun 2nd 2018, 9:43 PM

    It’s a simple process that they use ..in order to create all those extra SNA’s , they had to make cuts elsewhere ..hence a lot of children had their access cut which leads to SNA’s loosing their jobs.

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    Mute Charles Coughlan
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    Jun 3rd 2018, 10:57 AM

    Meanwhile government ministers and TD’s award themselves another pay rise, many can retire on pensions 75% funded by the the taxpayer at 50.

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    Mute Fiona Mc Cusker
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    Jun 6th 2018, 4:55 PM

    I was also informed last week that my son has lost all his SNA access for 2018/2019, so much for government promises!!

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