Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 December 2016
55. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the arrangements in place for the support of children with disabilities who are in preschool facilities; her views on whether there are barriers for children with disabilities to accessing preschool; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39924/16]
View answerThat is the lucky dip. The question is on the arrangements in place to support children with disabilities who are in preschool facilities and the Minister's view on whether there are barriers to children with disabilities accessing preschool. The matter relates to the access and inclusion model.
As the Deputy knows, we launched the access and inclusion model in 2016 and are in the process of rolling it out. There are seven levels of support. During the initial months, we got huge uptake and response to the model. The objective of the programme is to ensure children with any form of disability are able to participate in our free preschool settings and to change the culture in those centres. I launched the scheme several months ago in a centre in Tallaght where it was evident that the culture was already present. This has much to do with the values behind the private as well as community-based providers in the work they do. This is the first level of support and it goes all the way up to the higher levels of support where there are resources that can be applied for to provide direct and more intensive support to the child while he or she is in the provider's care.
There were some initial teething problems as are there are with the roll-out of any programme. Very significant resources have been provided for the support of parents, providers and practitioners, particularly in learning, training and providing on-site mentoring. The Deputy is aware of all those levels of support and there are what we hope are sufficient funds - it was a significant amount of money - for its full roll-out in 2017.
I thank the Minister for her response. Her office and mine have had many communications regarding the access and inclusion model. My question was on levels six and seven of the model, where I have encountered problems. Constituents have brought to my attention the problems children with Down's syndrome have had accessing level six and level seven given that the supports at those levels had not been rolled out yet. The model is a step in the right direction. It should be all-inclusive. I welcomed it completely and I can understand why it would take so long to reach this stage.
My concern is that we are nearing Christmas and the child I would have thought about several weeks ago is still awaiting the support. It has not been delivered. We are waiting for another child in the crèche to be assessed and, hopefully, we will receive support for both children under the access and inclusion model. When does the Minister think it will be fully rolled out? Where are we looking at for complete delivery? Have we a timeframe based on which I can assure the parents that in a certain number of days or weeks it will be rolled out?
Those are excellent questions and I will refer to my officials regarding the particular cases the Deputy identified and with which we are already in communication. It is always important, as a Minister, to respond to what is in front of me, individually, whether it is a person or an issue, as well as the overall policy and programme.
This provides me with the best ways of understanding how to be successful as we move to spread out what we are offering. Furthermore, I hope that by the end of the first quarter, many of these teething problems will be resolved and that we will ask for a review in this regard.
We have exceeded the time for questions by about two minutes.
