Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Access to children's disability network teams was misunderstood as the progressing disability services, PDS, programme model was being rolled out. The access policy states that it should be the closest to home or the closest to your school. The parent has that choice. That was part of the original PDS model from 2009. As it was being rolled out last year, there was perhaps some misunderstanding that it had to be in a set area. Parents have a choice of whether it is closest to home or closest to school. Therapists being returned to special schools will provide an uplift to the 134 special schools and the new special schools that are coming. We then need to look at how we can best meet the needs of all other children. We all know that the best place is in a school setting. We do not need to extract them. We can work better. Going in and not meeting them is not delivery or an intervention. We need to see whether there is a designated room and how we can work best with our partners in education and with parents. I hope that when we look after special schools, we will move to that space.

The school inclusion model is in place in some cases, but it is more about speaking to the teacher than to the child. We need to join that up more. We would then have a service where the majority of children are in a setting with their friends and peers. We need to see how that integration works. I spoke with Adam Harris in AsIAm and his team about how complete integration can work. That is what parents are asking us to do. Parents also have to work. They need the best for their children. When assessments are done, they happen in the school environment, so therapy should be delivered in the school environment too. I have covered those three things.