Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
936. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Education her views on whether early start requires an overhaul and that autistic children need additional support to be able to fulfil their potential; her plans in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39195/21]
View answerThe Early Start programme was established in 1994, and is a one-year intervention to meet the needs of children aged between 3 years and 5 years who are at risk of not reaching their potential within the school system. It involves an educational programme to enhance overall development, help prevent school failure and offset the effects of social disadvantage.
Since the inception of Early Start, the early childhood education and care landscape has changed significantly with the introduction of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme in 2010, and the extension of this scheme to a two year programme in 2018. The ECCE scheme is under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and officials of my Department and its agencies co-operate closely with that Department, particularly in relation to Síolta and Aistear , the national quality and curriculum frameworks for early years care and education.
While the ECCE scheme is the national universal two-year pre-school scheme available to all children, the Early Start programme continues to run in 40 primary schools in designated areas of urban disadvantage, and has capacity for 1,620 children each year. Early Start units attached to primary schools are staffed by teachers and child care workers, and the role of the child care workers is to meet the care needs of all the children in the unit, including those children with special educational needs. The programme opens each year to new child enrolments.
My Department also plays a key role in the ongoing development of the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) which was launched in June 2016 by the Department of Children, Equality, Diversity, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY). AIM is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the ECCE scheme. AIM supports are provided through the ECCE scheme. The main supports are grouped into universal or targeted supports. Where universal supports are not enough to meet the needs of an individual child, targeted supports are available to ensure the child can meaningfully participate in pre-school.
My Department has made provision for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) classes for children of pre-school age for whom places aren’t available from providers of the ECCE scheme. These classes are attached to mainstream schools. There are currently 135 of these ASD classes across the country providing targeted supports for 737 pupils. Moreover, where places in those classes are not currently available to pupils my Department provides Home Tuition grants to enable access to pre-school education for those children. In the last school year there were 522 pre-school children being supported by the Home Tuition scheme.
The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is available to provide further advice and assistance in respect of the supports available which are delivered locally through their national network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) who interact with parents and schools and liaise with the HSE in providing resources to support children with special educational needs.
