Ms Elaine Jenkins:

What we are proposing is to step somewhat outside of education, particularly for the children with more complex needs. As Mrs. Jennings mentioned earlier regarding the Department of Education freedom of information figures for 2021, only 410 children in special schools had the school-based programme. A bigger figure is that 80% of them had none.

We spoke to the parents in our group earlier this year and as of June the attendance numbers look to be down somewhat, even on 2021. We can sit here and complain or we can do something about it. What we do as a group is to try to find solutions that we can bring forward. As Ms Jennings mentioned, one angle we took was to find out what the other jurisdictions in Europe are doing. We contacted each of them and many replied. The one we had most interaction with was the Maltese department of education. We met them three times. They were extremely helpful. They talked us through what they do in summer. They have a similar system to us in that they have special schools. They are now copying our model for special classes and rolling that out but they also have a lot of autistic children in mainstream education. They offer a programme which is available to every child, every year, for the full summer break. They offer the work initially to educators early in the year who decide whether they will do it. If not, then it is offered to others, for example, speech therapists, OTs, doctors, nurses, trainee police etc. We believe everybody who will be working with our children as adults should know them as children and they benefit as much from that as our children do.

The Maltese programme is an eight week long summer programme. They cover the curriculum in their winter school. Summer is basically camp-based in school with school transport. Some of the school staff participate but not all. The difference between our programme and theirs is that theirs is equitable. Every child gets the opportunity to attend. In our case, some schools offer a severe to profound class, but not an autism class. Sometimes 10% of a school can attend and there is a lottery. The Maltese programme is reliable. It is run for eight weeks every year so parents can plan the summer. They do not have to take unpaid leave. Siblings can have a life during the summer. Finally, it is flexible. Not every child will be able to attend for the full summer so parents can choose which weeks the child attends.

We are asking for a Maltese-type programme to be introduced from 2023 onwards and, as Ms Jennings said, we need a tiered approach. That is what we are hoping for.