Crucial role of special needs assistants

Sir, – As a special needs assistant (SNA) working in a wonderful special school that caters for children with a dual diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, I empathise with parent Aisling McNiffe (“Summer provision and children with special needs”, Letters, May 4th) whose son attends a special school.

I’ve been working as an SNA for almost 10 years. I’ve watched the same issue year after year regarding the difficulties for children with additional needs accessing summer provision, or July provision as it was previously called. A school-based summer provision programme should be an option for all children who attend special schools as a matter of priority. These children should be catered for in a warm, safe, familiar setting, well equipped to cater for their individual and complex needs. Staff should be kind, caring and skilled to deal with the unique and often challenging needs of each child.

A home-based arrangement is unsuitable for the majority of children that attend these schools due to the complex and varying nature of their needs.

I feel the root problem in attracting staff to facilitate summer provision, particularly for those children who attend special schools, is the lack of understanding on the part of the powers that be of the complexity of these children’s needs and the amazing work that goes on in special schools.

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I’ve been most fortunate to work in a mainstream setting, an ASD class in that setting, and now in a special school. The profile of many of the students in special schools are children with communication difficulties, behavioural challenges, medical issues and intellectual disabilities. Some present with all of these challenges.

Acquisition of academic skills is not a realistic possibility or indeed a priority for many of these children.

Attending to care needs and promoting life skills are more relevant for these students and are of far greater importance to them. The aim being that each child in these specialised settings reaches their full potential in life, which is every parent’s wish.

The role taken on by SNAs in these settings is very different to that of their mainstream counterparts. The majority of staff working in special schools are SNAs, often four of them to each qualified teacher.

The skilled and caring role of SNAs in these schools needs greater understanding and recognition. Many of these SNAs are very well qualified and have primary degrees in nursing, psychology, social care and early years education, very relevant in special school settings.

I’d invite Taoiseach Simon Harris, Minister for Education Norma Foley, and Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Hildegarde Naughton to spend some meaningful time in these schools. Only then will they truly appreciate the complexity of the children’s needs that attend them. They will witness first hand the invaluable role that skilled SNAs have in the running of these schools and hopefully realise the need for change in the roll-out of summer provision for the most needy children in our educational system. I suggest they then might go back to the drawing board and review the payments offered to staff working in the programme.

Currently teachers earn more than 2.5 times the hourly rate that SNAs earn for doing the same job in offering summer provision in special schools. Parity of pay would instantly boost the uptake of wonderful SNAs engaging in summer provision while offering a much-needed service to our most vulnerable children and their wonderful families. – Yours, etc,

LORNA O’SULLIVAN,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.