Special needs assistants (SNAs) will be redeployed to vacant posts in other schools if they are no longer required due to factors such as falling enrolments or reduced care needs among pupils under a new scheme.
There are more than 22,000 SNAs in classrooms whose role is to assist teachers by supporting more vulnerable students with significant care needs.
Minister for Education Helen McEntee said the new redeployment scheme, to be operated by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), will allow SNAs stay in the sector and continue to share their skills and experience with vulnerable children.
“This scheme will increase job security for SNAs and encourage prospective SNAs to enter the workforce. Crucially, the scheme will benefit children and school communities by ensuring that the workforce is agile and in a position to respond to emerging needs,” she said.
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Ms McEntee’s announcement comes in advance of the Fórsa trade union education divisional conference in Galway on Thursday. The union represents more than 18,000 education workers including SNAs.
Issues such as the allocation of SNAs, negotiations on new contracts and the need for a redeployment scheme are due to be debated.
The Department of Education said the new initiative was being undertaken in conjunction with ongoing work on a workforce development plan, scheduled for publication later this year.
John Kearney, NCSE chief executive, said the new measure will build capacity in the SNA workforce by ensuring “valuable skills are not lost as the level of need shifts between schools”.
The number of SNAs has grown dramatically over recent years.
Some 1,600 new posts are due to allocated to schools this year, which will see the SNA workforce exceed 23,000.
The increase reflects the growing level of need among children with additional needs and higher prevalence rates of conditions such as autism.
Despite the increases, some schools and parents say they are losing out SNA support and, as a result, pupils in need of crucial support are struggling in classes.
On Wednesday, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation heard that some schools were being restricted from appointing SNAs to fill their approved allocation due to a “recent enforcement of a recruitment cap”.
Delegates backed a motion from the union’s Drogheda branch calling on the union to negotiate education authorities to ensure there are “no barriers to the appointment of SNAs, when approved, to meet identified needs in a school”.
The Department of Education says SNAs are allocated to schools as a “school-based resource”.
“Principals or school board of management deploy SNAs within schools ensuring that students with the greatest level of need receive the greatest level of supports,” it says.
“Where a school considers it has insufficient SNA support to meet the needs of its students, an application can be submitted to the NCSE requesting a review of its allocation.”
