Dr. Gerald Craddock:

To take Portugal as an example, Miguel Valles was here in December 2024. He heads up a rehabilitation centre quite similar to Enable Ireland or the Central Remedial Clinic. In 2018, a change in legislation meant that all special schools were closed and the children were to be reintegrated back into their own primary schools. As part of that, all of the support teachers and therapists were reintegrated into these primary schools. It became a network of support. A key part of that was engaging with parents to ensure they were on board as part of this. I was talking to Mr. Valles in the last couple of days and he said it was a transformation overnight. The legislation was put in place in 2017. In 2018, the special schools were shut down and reintegrated into their communities. All the support teachers, therapists, etc., were then dispersed. That becomes a network. There are 154 networks across Portugal that are all connected. They have a case manager who manages these integrated teams as part of the system.