Press release
Ministers Foley and Naughton announce new structure for the National Council for Special Education
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Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Hildegarde Naughton today announced details of a revised structure of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
This comes on foot of the Budget announcement last year, which secured an increase of 50 per cent in staffing levels for the NCSE. It follows an intensive organisational review by the NCSE in consultation with stakeholders to ensure that the NCSE is meeting the needs of children with special educational needs in a child-centred and receptive manner.
The key parts of this revised structure are a move to a more responsive, localised structure with dedicated resources allocated to each county.
These changes will provide a more focused and integrated approach for children and their parents to ensure that they can access education appropriate to their needs. There will be an increase of 60 per cent in the number of Special Education Needs Organisers (SENOs) across the country, as well as additional support staff, team managers and other dedicated professionals.
The new localised structure, which will see SENOs being assigned on a county basis, will be fully operational for the start of the new school year in September. Recruitment is ongoing across a range of grades and there are now 80 SENOs and 16 team managers in place, more than ever before in the NCSE. Additional administrative staff are also being recruited to ensure more effective delivery of services for schools and families.
The NCSE will be communicating details of the new structure to schools and parents over the coming weeks.
Minister Foley said:
“The increased investment of €13 million in the NCSE secured in Budget 2023 was a priority for me as Minister for Education so that the NCSE could respond compassionately to the increasing needs of children in our education system. I want all children to be able to access education in a way that meets their needs and having a local SENO for parents and schools under this new structure is a key part of that.”
Minister Naughton said:
“Our goal with this reform, and indeed everything we do in the Department of Education, is to provide the best start in life for every child and to provide the supports that they need in their formative years and beyond.
“Our focus with these changes is to make access to special education supports more local and responsive to each child’s needs. Delivering more SENOs than ever before is key to ensuring that the right supports are going to the children who need them most. With more SENOs, supported by more regional managers, our aim is to make what can be a stressful and worrying time for parents and children run a lot more smoothly.
“I look forward to the NCSE finalising their recruitment drive so that our fully-staffed special education teams can hit the ground in September. It is vital for families and schools that they receive an effective service in their local community and by having more SENOs assigned at a local level, this can become a reality.”
Concluding, Minister Naughton said:
“The NCSE plays a vital role in ensuring that the educational needs of our most vulnerable children are met, and it is important that there is active, supportive and sustained engagement with families and schools to achieve this. The additional investment into the NCSE means that parents can speak to their local SENO team when they need help with providing the best possible education for their children.”
John Kearney, Chief Executive Officer of the NCSE, added:
“Following the additional investment, the NCSE has undertaken a review of its capacity to meet the significant and rising demands upon it and the organisational structure required to meet those demands with a focus on putting the child at the centre of everything we do. This review was informed by feedback from a wide range of stakeholders and the key message to us was that the NCSE needs to have a high profile in their local community. By increasing the number of SENOs and moving to a more localised structure from September, this is exactly what we are going to achieve. I want to let families and schools know that we will be there to support them on every step of their educational journey when they need us.”
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of Special Needs Organisers (SENOs), for fulfilling the functions of the Council within a designated area in relation to the identification of and delivery and co-ordination of education services to children with disabilities.
The Council employs SENOs, Advisors, Visiting Teachers and Therapists, to provide a nationwide system of local services, who are supported by a team of administrative support.
Locally-based staff consult widely with parents/guardians, teachers, health care professionals, school authorities, HSE and other relevant government agencies, to provide the best support to each child, tailored to their education requirements, for each stage of their educational development.
The funding announced in Budget 2023 will see an increase of over 50 per cent in overall staffing levels in the NCSE. This will provide for an additional 160 staff approximately in front line, administrative and leadership roles.
Since the Budget announcement the NCSE has engaged in a significant process of engagement with both internal and external stakeholders in the context of the organisational design process.
The NCSE has reviewed and redefined the SENO role. In doing so, the NCSE has engaged in extensive consultation with a large number of stakeholders. The purpose of redefining the SENO role is twofold, namely ensuring that the role is reflective of the work currently being undertaken by SENO grades and that such tasks are aligned to the future vision and strategic objectives of the organisation.
The principal changes under the new structure are:
- a transition from a 4-pillar to a 5-pillar structure, with the addition of a ‘Systems Innovation and Support’ service. This pillar will harness technological solutions and innovative data usage, combined with advanced business analytics, to predict future demand, facilitate forward planning for enhanced service delivery and build change capability, so the organisation can react rapidly as needed
- at local level, the NCSE is doubling the number of teams throughout the country, from a 10-team structure to a 20-team structure. This will facilitate a move toward a more county-based approach, so as to offer more concentrated and focused supports in each geographical/county area. These teams will be nationally supported with newly formed expert professional teams
- an increase of over 60 per cent in the number of SENOs to 120 and an overall increase of over 50per cent in operational and administrative staff. All SENO grades will be assigned on a county basis and will undertake caseloads associated with that county only and on a reduced caseload basis. This will allow for an integrated community-based service which is conducive to the development of key relationships between NCSE staff, parents and schools in the provision of services to students
The changed structure will be underpinned by a robust workforce planning model. In order to ensure that the new structure is resourced in the most optimum way possible, a robust assessment of the demand for NCSE services has taken place under the Strategic Workforce Plan (SWP). This robust assessment of demand has now been completed and outlines both the level of resources required in a geographical area and on a county basis and, importantly, will ensure that SENO grades are assigned clearly identifiable county caseloads.
This will also ensure that resources are matched more appropriately with current day demands which will in turn ensure an equitable distribution of caseloads across all SENO grades and will allow management to plan for future projected increases in demand to assign resources in a timely way to address demand arising which will help ensure any time lag between demand increases and the increase in staff numbers is minimised.
A map of the new allocations of SENOs is below– this will take effect from September 2024.
