Ms Karen O'Mahony:

I wish to comment on that as well. I am conscious that I am the only person from Cork here today. We have been talking to Ms Lowndes about how the model that Rainbow Club is offering. The youngest children are two years of age. These children are not in school or preschool. Some of them cannot go into the preschool because there is not enough access and inclusion model, AIM, provision. Therefore, we are now having these children as well.

Quite a number of our children have complex needs. We have certain rooms to cater for those children’s needs. However, it is all about the model and the pathway. When a family comes to us, they are giving us their information, the child’s diagnostic report comes to me and I read through it. We look to see where the child’s difficulties are, the challenges and what we need the staff to know and how they can provide support. The next thing is that the child is placed and mom and-or dad will come to meet with us and see where the other provisions need to be put in place. The siblings are sent to sibling group. If there are other therapeutic interventions that they need, that is all done through us. Again, we do the school liaising, forms and phone calls. We recently sent out packs to all of the GPs in County Cork because they needed to know where we are and what we do. There is a very clear transition for a child. We send out photographs of the room and the staff. We tell the parents what to do when they come, such as not to come too early so as not to wait, and all of this other stuff. The information is given to the staff. All staff have access to that. Every staff member who interacts with that child knows exactly what he or she needs.

We are adding to that all of the time. As challenges come up - and there are difficulties - we are adding to that information and addressing them. We are putting in the whole sensory diet. We have families that will have their children come to us after school. Some will stay two and three hours because mam is on her own, she works and the grandparents will be minding this child with very complex needs and are not able to, so we take the child.

It can be done and it is working. It is already in play in Cork. We did not have anything when we started. There was nobody I could go to for information. We started everything - policies, all of our implementation, all of our strategy and what we were going to do. The pathway is there for the child. When we feel the child is ready for another step, we bring the parents in tell them we think the child is ready to move on. A load of our children graduated to the teen hub this year. They were ready for the next step of the journey. Our life mentor coach will go into schools and help many of our older lads with the next plan for college. It is very doable. We have been doing it, and we are not a Department.

We have had loads of conversations with Ms Lowndes as well. We are also talking to Waterford about replicating its model. We are looking at the Dreambig Project down there. They have a very similar vision. This is something that can happen; it has already happened. We are all on the same page and want and need the same thing. We have identified very clearly what needs to happen. We should be getting support and help to make that happen and make life a bit better. If we all come together, it can happen much faster.