Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2018
36. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Education and Skills the rationale for the July provision being provided at a school's discretion; the steps he plans to take in cases in which a school is not willing to provide same (details supplied); and if he will meet parents of children that avail of the July provision in order to gain an understanding of the importance of this provision to the children. [22654/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe question speaks for itself. I am looking for the rationale for the July provision being provided at a school's discretion and the steps that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, plans to take in a case where a school is not willing to provide the provision. This refers, in particular, to the Enable Ireland school in Sandymount. Will the Minister meet with parents from that school who avail of this provision in order to understand how important this is to them and their children?
I thank Deputy Funchion for raising this matter. The July provision grant scheme provides funding for an extended school year for children with severe-profound general learning disabilities or children with autism spectrum disorders, ASD. Under this scheme, the school year of participating schools is extended by four weeks in July. Only special schools or mainstream schools that have special classes for autism and-or severe and profound learning disability are eligible to participate in the programme.
Each year eligible schools are invited to participate in the programme. Participation in the programme is voluntary and subject to the availability of suitably qualified personnel in July. Approximately 507 schools are eligible for this programme and approximately 219 take part, which is just over 40%.
Where school-based provision is not feasible, eligible students may be granted 40 hours of home-based tuition, which provides ten hours for each of the four weeks. Where an eligible school is not participating in the school based programme, it is open to parents to apply for the home-based July provision grant scheme. Approximately 3,400 children are in schools and 6,100 are availing of home based provision. The majority of children under the July provision are catered for at home.
The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, undertook a review of this, along with other aspects of autism spectrum supports, last year. The review recommends that, as an alternative to the existing scheme, stakeholders should discuss the development of a national day activity scheme that provides a structured, safe, social environment for all students with complex special educational needs for one month of the summer holidays. My Department has convened an implementation group to ensure that the report’s recommendations are considered. While that work is underway, there are no plans to change the existing July provision scheme.
The last point the Minister made is exactly the suggestion I was going to make. If there is a new scheme such as the national day scheme being considered the Minister should look to extend the current scheme. The school I referred to, the Enable Ireland Sandymount school programme, was funded by the parents of the children, with a reduced capacity when funding was withdrawn in 2010. It was so important to the parents and their children that they raised the funds for that themselves. When funding was re-introduced in 2013 it was announced that it would only apply to children with a severe impairment, intellectual disability or a diagnosis of autism. However, these children have very complex physical needs and there is really no reason for them to be excluded.
Home support from tutors is really not a one-size-fits-all solution for students. For many parents, there is such a difficulty in accessing any sort of respite care that the July provision can be a help. If it is not available they will not get any respite at all. The Minister should meet with the parents of the children from this school so that they can explain exactly how important the July break is for them. If a new scheme is being considered that is fair enough, but we all know that new schemes can take years to come in and the children are left in limbo during that wait.
I understand what the Deputy is saying, but we are talking about a voluntary scheme. Each school makes the decision to participate or not, based on its own staffing and capacity to extend the school year for another month. They get a capitation rate, but the implementation of the scheme depends on whether staff are willing to work for the extra month. If the staff work the extra month they get paid for it.
Different schools have had a tradition of organising it. We invite schools to participate each year, but there is no element of compulsion in this scheme. The extension of the scheme would have to be considered in the context of a budget. The scheme is focused on children with particularly high levels of need. There are approximately 10,000 children getting support from this scheme. Overall, there are some 50,000 children with special needs if all of those getting support are counted. This scheme applies to a group within that group which has the need for it. We will certainly look at revisions to the scheme, but I will not consider making it compulsory at this point.
The difficulty is that this is a voluntary scheme and while I am reluctant to say that schools should be compelled to provide it, there should be a back-up plan in place where a school is not participating so that parents are not left in limbo. It is almost June; the scheme is supposed to start at the start of July and the affected parents have no provision in place for this year. What does the Minister say to those parents in that school in Sandymount? Will the Minister meet with those parents to discuss options?
Home support can be great for certain students, particularly those in their teenage years. However, that also presents a difficulty because parents have to source the home tutor themselves. Recently I have seen cases where, if the people sourced by the parents are not registered with the Teaching Council they are made to register. Currently the Teaching Council has said that it will be 10 July or later before these people are registered. If the scheme is supposed to start at the beginning of July the students will be disadvantaged by ten to 14 days. There are many difficulties around the administration of this voluntary scheme. We cannot really make this a compulsory scheme, but there should definitely be some sort of comprehensive back-up plan when it is not in place. It is not good enough to say that families can get a home support tutor if they go off and do all the work themselves.
I will ask the NCSE if there is any way it can better support parents, but over 6,000 children are availing of that back-up scheme under the home-based July provision scheme, providing ten hours per week over four weeks. Those 6,000 people are spread throughout the country, so it is difficult to co-ordinate that centrally and provide a clearing house for that provision. I will ask the NCSE if there are ways in which parents can be supported where there has been a change in the arrangements.
