Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
281. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Education her plans to look at mainstream and autism classes to expand the pilot scheme for speech and language therapists and occupational therapists for autistic children. [35419/21]
View answerThe School Inclusion Model (SIM) is based on the principle of providing the right educational, care and therapeutic supports at the right time for children with special education needs. Its purpose is to help these students achieve better education and life outcomes. The policy is based on evidence based advice provided by the National Council for Special Education. Independent evaluation is critical to the development of this new model of service and its extension to other schools.
SIM includes the following elements:
- Provision of in-school therapies (speech and language, occupational)
- Allocation of Special Needs Assistants on a frontloaded basis thereby removing the need for a diagnosis in order to access care support
- Additional professional supports for schools including psychology, behavioural and professional development
- Training of SNAs
SIM has been developed in collaboration with the Departments of Health; Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the NCSE and the HSE.
In February 2019, the Government approved the trialling of the Model for the 2019/20 school year. Initially designed as a one year pilot involving up to 75 participating schools in the CHO 7 region, it was interrupted by Covid-19 with the closure of schools and the diversion of HSE therapists from the project to Covid related work. It was then extended to the 2020/21 school year which has also been interrupted by Covid.
Progress has been made on aspects of the Model but much remains to be done in terms of in-school implementation and evaluation.
As part of the 2021 Budget measures, funding was provided for the expansion of the School Inclusion Model during the 2021/22 school year.
Planning is underway on the arrangements for the continuation and expansion of the SIM pilot. This involves the development of a detailed plan which I will bring to Government in September. In the absence of this plan and the completion of the underlying consideration, it is not possible to say which new areas will be selected.
The plan will address some very important matters including:
- Resumption of SIM in the CH07 area
- the criteria for the selection of the new areas
- supply of therapists
- evaluation arrangements
- consultation with stakeholders
At present, there is ongoing engagement with other Government Departments and their agencies on the plan.
I expect to be in a position to make an announcement on the matter in the autumn.
