Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
139. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his Department’s strategy to support children with disabilities to access the State-funded Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36703/22]
View answerMy Department funds the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), which was launched in June 2016 and is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of quality early learning and care. AIM offers tailored, practical supports based on need and does not require a formal diagnosis of disability.
There are seven levels of AIM, which encompass a range of both universal and targeted supports for pre-school settings. Universal supports are designed to create a more inclusive culture in early learning and care settings, through training courses and qualifications for staff. 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 the ECCE programme.
From September 2022 I will make additional funding available to support children with disabilities to access the State-funded Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Additional capitation will be provided to increase AIM Level 7 supports to providers from €210 per week to €240 per week. This funding is used by the pre-school provider either to reduce the adult to child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance.
One of the commitments in First 5, A Government Strategy for Babies and Children, was to undertake an end of Three-Year Evaluation of AIM. That evaluation has been undertaken and the draft report has been reviewed by the Cross Sectoral Implementation Group (CSIG), with the final report due to be published in Q3 of this year.
The evaluation included extensive consultations with parents, providers and other key stakeholders.
Subject to evaluation findings and other relevant developments, we will be considering potential enhancements to, and/or extensions of AIM.
