Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 May 2016
223. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding available for the provision of special needs assistants under the early childhood care and education scheme for the upcoming term beginning in September, 2016; the number of additional posts that have been funded; the timeframe for recruitment of the posts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11047/16]
View answerIn November 2015, a new model for supporting children with a disability to access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme was launched. The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a cross-Government initiative, led by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, and involving the Department of Health, the Department of Education and Skills and others. The model will deliver seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, to enable the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with disabilities in the ECCE programme. These are:
Level 1 -An Inclusive Culture: includes training dedicated Inclusion Co-ordinators in pre-schools, and a small capitation increase for particular childcare services to support fully inclusive practice;
Level 2 - Information for Parents and Providers: includes development of a national website and information packs for parents and providers;
Level 3 - A Qualified and Confident Workforce: resourcing formal and informal training for early years practitioners to support more inclusive provision;
Level 4 - Expert Educational Advice & Support: enhancing the Better Start Early Years Specialist Service so that practitioners have prompt access to advice and support from experts in early years education for children with disabilities;
Level 5 - Equipment, Appliances and Minor Alterations: the provision of specialised equipment, appliances or capital grants towards the cost of minor building alterations so that children with disabilities can participate in pre-school;
Level 6 - Therapeutic Intervention: additional resources to enable access to HSE therapeutic services, where these are needed to allow a child enrol, and fully participate in, pre-school.
Level 7 - Additional Assistance: where the supports available at levels 1-6 are not sufficient to meet a child’s needs, additional capitation can be made available to childcare providers to support the pre-school leader to ensure children’s full participation. This could include, for example, buying in additional support, or, in particular circumstances, reducing the staff:child ratio.
Work is well advanced across many elements of the model with a view to introducing the initiative from September 2016. It is intended that service providers and parents will be able to submit applications for supports under the new model from June 2016 onwards to allow them to plan for pre-school enrolment in September 2016 and to ensure that children will begin to benefit from these measures from that point forward.
Funding of €14.35 million has been provided by my Department for the implementation of the scheme in 2016. The model will build incrementally over a number of years with full implementation costs in 2020 estimated at almost €40 million.
Finally, the Deputy has asked specifically about funding for the provision of Special Needs Assistants. The model does not involve the provision of special needs assistants and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs does not fund such services. The HSE does, on an ad hoc basis, make some supports available and it is expected that these arrangements will continue until the new model has been established.
