Ms Rose Bradley:

I have worked as a senior social worker with the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, in Waterford for over 12 years. The CRC provides a range of services to children and young people with a range of disabilities from birth to 18 years. The CRC is the primary service provider for children from the Waterford community care area who have a primary physical disability.

Working as a social worker I am aware of the emotional impact on families when a child has significant disability and of the adjustments and adaptations that families have to make. One of the recurring issues I have to advocate for on behalf of families who attend CRC services is the lack of adequate supports within the mainstream preschool environment for children with disabilities and my focus here today is on this lack.

The early childhood care and education scheme, ECCE, commonly known as the free preschool year was introduced five years ago and gives all children an entitlement to a free preschool year. In my experience children who need physical assistance are sometimes unable to avail of their entitlement in its entirety due to lack of supports and are effectively discriminated against.

Supports are needed for children with disabilities to avail of the ECCE scheme. These supports can include access to the appropriate equipment, technology, skilled staff, environment and transport. I believe all children need equal access to the ECCE scheme. I have known parents who they have had to pay privately for a support worker so that their child can access the free ECCE entitlement. There is no system in place nationally which caters for the special needs assistant, SNA, support needs of children with disabilities in preschool. The current system is inequitable for those children who are most vulnerable.

Every child is an individual and support needs vary from one child and family to the next. For some children, placement in a special preschool is the right option due to the particular needs and services required. Where special needs preschools coexist with special schools this has ensured that those children have access to equipment and to the teaching staff supported by the multidisciplinary services. The CRC service in Dublin has two preschool services integrated into the two special schools of CRC Clontarf special school and Scoil Mochua, Clondalkin. For other children, however, this is not always the most appropriate placement. Children for whom the plan is mainstream primary school require a supported mainstream preschool placement beforehand. Many children can benefit from one to two years in a special needs preschool and can then be successfully moved to a local mainstream school. Some of the children documented in the appendix of my written submissions have had such an experience.

The preschool experience is vital in helping all children to be school ready and also to have the opportunity to move on with their peers. For the child with special needs, this experience requires adequate support, most especially that of a well-trained SNA. Provision of a supported and supervised SNA is critical to supporting children in the mainstream preschool environment. This service could be supported and-or provided by agencies, such as the CRC to ensure staff are adequately trained and supervised.

I have a few recommendations, including that the Department of Education and Skills extend the SNA support structure to children with disabilities in the preschool sector in the same way that it is offered to this group in primary and secondary schools currently; the ECCE year be extended to two full years for all children which would benefit all children; that consideration be given to increasing the numbers of community preschools as this would go some way to addressing the issue of distance to services and providing more choice to families; and that innovative ways are considered for the provision, support, training and supervision of SNAs. In conclusion, a range of options needs to be provided from accessible mainstream preschools to special needs preschools, which may be attached to specialist services or special schools.