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JUST UNDER HALF of schools have provided medical grade face masks to special needs assistants (SNA), according to a new survey.
The online survey of Fórsa’s SNA members found that just 49% of 2,100 respondent were able to confirm that their school had provided medical grade face masks, while 17% reported that they had been asked to re-use PPE equipment.
The Fórsa trade union represents more than 11,000 SNAs nationwide. The survey response represents a return of more than 12% of the entire SNA workforce in schools.
Asked if their school had provided medical grade face masks, a fifth of SNA respondents (21%) said the masks they were provided did not meet the industry standard EN14683.
Almost a third (29%) said they were unsure if the masks provided were up to standard.
Almost half (49%) said that the masks provided were the correct standard.
Asked if they had been told to re-use PPE (contrary to HSE guidelines), 17% of SNAs reported that they had been asked to reuse this equipment, while almost 10% of respondents said they had been told that their school had no more money for PPE, or that no more PPE would be available.
“These are truly shocking results which demonstrate a callous disregard for thousands of SNAs. Medical grade face masks are the basic level of personal protective equipment and are routinely provided to staff in all healthcare settings,” Fórsa’s head of education Andy Pike said.
SNAs cannot practice social distancing at work. They need this minimal standard of protection.
“If only half of SNAs are able to confirm they’re receiving appropriate equipment, we have to conclude that half our schools are insufficiently prepared to be operating, while at the same time putting students and staff at risk of infection,” Pike said.
He said that Fórsa’s “next step” is to “send the list of non-compliant schools to the Department of Education.
The survey collected data on the provision and use of PPE between Friday 4 September and Tuesday 8 September. The survey captured data from 1,296 primary schools, 496 secondary schools and 337 special schools and represents the most comprehensive research to date on the use of PPE across the schools sector.
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All schools should be mandated to provide this basic level of ppe, and beyond, for all school staff until no longer necessary. School mgmt, BOM, patrons and ultimately the Minister and Dept have an obligation to provide a safe working environment.
No safety no school.
@alan: not how it works
Schools have bought in the cheapest of the cheap!
@Jonnie Marre: they were provided with a list of Dept approved suppliers
@Geraldine Lawlor: well that’s interesting because you certainly wouldn’t think it!!!
I work in a school and the medical grade masks were bought when we showed that the DES said these should be used. They are kept under lock and key and we have to ask every time we want one and explain what happened the last one we were given. Management expect that each mask should last us a month.
@2thFairy: an f in month???? That’s a joke. Get your union rep, workplace committee, union itself, BOM, patron and above involved on this ASAP
@2thFairy: of course they do; that way, staff will buy their own and then the department won’t have to cover the cost of them
My wife is a teacher in Dublin and she has not been provided with any PPE whatsoever. She has had to purchase everything she needs herself.
It is disgraceful that all school staff are not provided with PPE of an adequate standard to protect themselves and their students.
Schools should not have opened until they were prepared.
As it is teachers have to spend literally half the school day cleaning classrooms and supervising handwashing. Teachers and SNAs are being used as glorified babysitters and cleaners.
Then they get abuse from parents for taking a child out of their class who is coughing.
So on top of it all they’re expected to be able to distinguish between a covid cough & another cough.
A ridiculous situation all round.
@The Logic: can she not afford her own washable face masks on a teachers salary if she is worried (although numerous studies have shown that children who transmit or contract the virus in school are a tiny percentage of cases)
@Joan Murray: that’s not true of secondary students and it’s school mgmt, BOM, patrons, Dept and ultimately Ministers job to provide a safe school environment
What constitutes ‘medical grade’?
WTF all SNA’s should be issued with full PPE and the job they do is dangerous because of body fluid etc Close down schools that do not provide full PPE to SNA’s or get mammy and daddy of special needs kids to clean up after their offspring. This is a public health issue. No doctor or nurse is exposed to body fluid. Why is an SNA put at risk. Disguisting that a man or woman is expose to a potential bio hazard without PPE
@adrian j aungier:
Surprised they did make the students parents pay. The recall we had to provide the SNA with a phone and credit to call us as they wouldn’t use office phone.
@Serge the llama: are you serious??? I have never in 20 yrs working as an Sna heard that. Generally we use a communication copy or the parents fill us in at drop off. We would fill them in at pick up. Anything of a serious nature the class teacher would contact parents. In the event of illness then of course we would use office phone to call parents or the school secretary would call them ?
@Geraldine Lawlor: very serious.
The school made our lives a misery. A living nightmare.
So much so our daughters Younger siblings went to another primary school a few kilometres away. She only stayed as she had many friends in her class.
In hindsight she would have been better off in her siblings school. That school was amazing.
@Serge the llama: then name and shame because that’s a joke. It will be make my tea break interesting in the morning when I tell my colleagues
have your say