Vol. 416 No. 2
119 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education if he will give details of the plans he has, if any, to expand the visiting teacher service; whether the service will be divided along different specialisations in order to allow visiting teachers become particularly skilled in handling the particular field of disability in which they are working; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As part of the allocation of additional teaching resources made available under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, six additional teachers have been appointed to the visiting teacher service.
The intention is that these additional teachers, together with those of the existing service who currently focus on children with visual and hearing impairment, will form the basis for a generic service embracing other clinical groups. Initially, it is intended that the expanded service will embrace children with Down's Syndrome as well as the visually and hearing impaired.
