Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 31 May 2023
142. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department will considerextending the AIM programme to school-age childcare for children in receipt of the support for ECCE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26545/23]
View answerMy Department has, since 2016, funded the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) 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 high-quality early learning and care.
AIM offers tailored, practical supports - both universal and targeted - based on need and does not require a formal diagnosis of disability. Over 20,000 children have received over 43,000 targeted supports in over 4,000 settings nationally since its introduction. These figures do not include the many more children and services that have benefited from the universal supports funded through AIM.
One of the commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, was to undertake an evaluation of AIM and subject to evaluation findings and other relevant developments, to consider enhancements to, and/or extension of, AIM to, for example, all early learning and care services, all school-age childcare services and to children with additional needs other than a disability.
The AIM evaluation is now close to completion. The final report is due to be published in quarter 4 of this year. The findings from the evaluation will inform further development of AIM, as committed to in First 5.
