AQW 1843/08

Mrs Naomi Long
Alliance Party
East Belfast

Tabled Date: 19/11/2007
Answered On Date: 29/11/2007
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education what steps are being taken during the on-going industrial action by classroom assistants to ensure that the children attending special schools, and who access paramedical therapy in the schools, continue to do so on a regular basis.

Answer:

The Education and Library Boards have advised Health and Social Care Trusts that contingency arrangements have been put in place in the event of further industrial action in the classroom assistants' dispute. Special schools and special units/classes attached to mainstream schools should mainly be operational.

Health and Social Care Trusts will continue to provide support in schools for children with health needs regardless of the industrial action taken by classroom assistants. This will continue as long as the schools are open.

The Health and Social Care Trusts have put contingency arrangements in place in the event that schools are not available. Allied health professional staff who normally provide services in schools will be re-deployed to provide their services, either in extra sessions in local clinics and health centres or in domiciliary visits to their clients. Where a personal service is delivered directly to an individual child, this will still be offered in the child's home.