IPPN

E-scéal 29th May 2025 - SNA Allocations to Mainstream Schools for 2025-26 / Publication of Child Protection Procedures (2025)

Published: 30 May 2025

Stay informed via your weekly E-scéal

SNA Allocations
Child Protection Procedures (2025)
Planning Prompts
DE Circulars
Sectoral Updates
25 Years of IPPN – Interview with President Pat Goff
IPPN Roadshow – Workshops
Leadership+ Issue 138
Please Note
Be Well, Lead Well
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SNA Allocations

Circular 0032/2025 issued to schools this week detailing the manner in which Special Needs Assistants are to be allocated to schools to support children with care needs in mainstream classes for the 2025/25 school year.

Points of information

Schools will receive an email from the NCSE this week detailing their SNA allocation for 2025/26
The full list of allocations to schools will be published on the NCSE website next week.
Where a school identifies a significant increase in care needs, additional resources can be provided to support the school, following a request for review by the school with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
If a school is dissatisfied with the outcome of a review, it may appeal that decision.
Details on grounds for appeal and the appeals mechanism are available via https://ncse.ie/ncse-appeals-process
The NCSE will undertake SNA reviews during the 2025/26 school year to compile a real time analysis of SNA deployment across the education system and the requirement nationally for SNA support in schools
A toolkit to assist schools in the review, reprioritisation and redeployment of SNA support is available from the NCSE via https://ncse.ie/special-needs-assistants
The circular also signposts the planned introduction of a redeployment scheme for SNAs.
That redeployment scheme is not yet in place and, therefore, does not impact SNA recruitment for this coming September.

Child Protection Procedures 2025

The DE has published updated Child Protection Procedures for Schools. As in earlier versions (2017 & 2023), these procedures set out requirements to ensure that reporting procedures in line with Children First are in place and that school personnel know how to recognise and report alleged child protection concerns, and that parents/guardians and all school personnel are aware of the school’s child protection and safeguarding procedures.

The updated procedures

take account of new legislation in place since the last update of the procedures
provide guidance on communicating with parents and on record keeping.

These updated procedures apply to all recognised schools which are attended by children and young people under the age of 18 years. Boards of Management will be required to adopt the updated procedures no later than their last meeting prior to 31 December 2026.

Further professional guidance on the updated procedures will issue in the new school year.

Planning Prompts

In the run up to any holiday period and especially the summer break, be aware of people offloading issues and problems onto the school leader. If you believe that every problem is yours to solve, then your holiday will be spent ruminating on those issues. Simply being aware of this possibility may save you unnecessary stress. You can offer support in helping them to solve their issue, while at the same time not making the problem yours. Be clear, be kind, but be firm.