Ms Derval McDonagh:

The Deputy asked where we would start with the technology. Every child has a right to reasonable accommodations to access the curriculum and access a high-quality education experience. Assistive technology is one part of how a child can do that. That joined-up aspect across health, social care and education is not yet system-wide. We are seeing major gaps for children in terms of their right to access the technology and access education. If children are on a waiting list to see a speech and language therapist for an alternative or augmentative communication device that they need to access their right to education, that leads to years lost for those children. Again, it is back to the question of whether this is a cost or an investment in our children in the early years. We really need to see the narrative around that changing.

I was really struck by the training aspect. Sometimes, when we are talking about training for schools, teachers or the school system, we take a narrow view of what that is. We congratulate ourselves if there is one closure day for a once-off training course. The school representatives sitting beside us talked about a deep transformational change, and that comes from working alongside one other in schools, having the input of therapists in the school system working alongside teachers, both of whom have two different skill sets that complement each other. Over time, that leads to transformational change as opposed to just having once-off training. In that, we see all sorts of creativity and innovation around accessing alternative and augmentative communication devices, and assistive technology in general, because that skill set is being built into the school community and people are getting what they need earlier, rather than sitting on a waiting list until they see a therapist.