AQW 5750/17-22


Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford


Tabled Date: 21/07/2020
Answered On Date: 29/07/2020
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Education when classroom assistants will receive training or guidance on how to support children with a statement of special education needs, to ensure not only COVID-19-related protections are in place, but also to ensure children’s recognised needs will be met.


Answer:
Special School Principals have attended a webinar from the Department of Education (DE) and Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) on the emotional impact of COVID-19 on young people. Principals will disseminate this training as is appropriate within their own schools with staff, including classroom assistants.
The required Manual Handling training will be provided by the Education Authority (EA) under usual procedures for classroom assistants, and any required First Aid or health related training will be delivered by Health Trusts directly, as is usual procedure.
Individual risk assessments in relation to delivering education for children with statements will be required as part of the overall facilitation of the return to school. Existing guidance states that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is only needed in a very small number of cases. These are:
Working with children, young people and pupils whose care routinely already involves the use of PPE, due to their intimate care needs and
Giving children medication.
A training programme for classroom assistants to support the social, behavioural, emotional and wellbeing needs of children with a statement will be available to all assistants in an online capacity from the EA from 17th August 2020. An online engagement briefing is planned with classroom assistants to seek their views on any further training requirements in supporting young people during Restart.
Training which is accessible to classroom assistants, including those working with children with statements of SEN, will continue to be provided by EA Support Services in the 2020-2021 school year through the Children and Young People Services Training Programme. This training will be adapted as required to ensure that necessary guidance is reflected in the training content. This will also be the case for any training and capacity building provided to classroom assistants as part of on-going support for individual children.