Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 May 2023
81. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Education her plans to expand the model of the NEIC (North East Inner City) Multidisciplinary Teams to include all schools with a DEIS band 1 status in Dublin 9 and 11. [23371/23]
View answer84. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Education the estimated cost of expanding the model of the NEIC (North East Inner City) Multidisciplinary Teams Model to include all schools with a DEIS band 1 nationwide. [23375/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 81 and 84 together.
The Department of Education is committed to supporting a quality and inclusive school system that provides an equal opportunity at success for all children, including those at risk of educational disadvantage. In line with the programme for Government, the Government is continuing to examine how the model of intervention in the north-east inner city could be extended to other comparative areas experiencing disadvantage.
The North East Inner City Multi-Disciplinary Team (NEIC MDT) comprises of Educational Psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of the Department of Education (DE), and Health Service Executive (HSE) Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and a Psychologist This project is an interagency collaboration between the HSE and DE which provides a multidisciplinary team to ten NEIC primary schools. The NEIC MDT provide school staff, children and families access to on-site Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Psychology; it also offers psychology support to families through the HSE Psychologist on the team. The MDT provide a wraparound service including preventative work, early intervention, assessment and therapeutic intervention, to support all children, school staff and families.
The MDT teams provide a needs-based school service that responds to the presenting issues for each child, their family and school.
Ongoing research, evaluation and monitoring of the Multidisciplinary Team intervention will inform further policy developments in this area, including modelling of potential expansion costs.
