Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I will share time with Deputy M. J. Nolan. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on psychological services. The special needs provision in our schools have seen significant investment in recent years and as a former teacher and special needs director, I am acutely aware of the importance of improving the services we provide.

It is with this in mind that I highlight the ground-breaking approach adopted by the HSE in the Kildare — west Wicklow area in providing support to children with special needs attending mainstream primary schools. The Kildare west Wicklow school support team, as it is known, provides support for children with a primary intellectual disability or a specific learning difficulty who are attending mainstream schools in the catchment area and who meet the criteria for this service. It is effectively an interdisciplinary approach for assessing the needs of children with intellectual disability and drawing up a programme for these children in conjunction with the children themselves, their parents, teachers and support staff.

The team at present includes a psychologist, senior occupational therapist and a speech and language therapist. The team has prioritised the senior end of the primary schools and schools with bigger numbers of children requiring the service. These children were known to the HSE but were not receiving services.

Parents, school staff, GPs and a range of other health professionals can refer a child to the Kildare west Wicklow support team for assessment. The model of service provided by the HSE to schools is agreed in advance and involves the team carrying out a block of visits into each school to work with the children in their school environment. The assessment process varies greatly for individual children which, in my view, reflects the quality of the assessment. Where standardised assessments have proved valuable for a few children, for others the most useful information has come from observation of the child and-or discussion with staff, parents and child. The aim of the support team is to enable children to access the curriculum and participate in school activities to their full potential.

Programmes addressing the specific needs identified in the assessment are put in place for use by staff in schools. Training is provided to teachers and support staff to assist with the intervention process, which helps in targeting the specific needs of each child. Typical support programmes which have been implemented include speech and language programmes; strategies regarding management of behaviour in the classroom, playground, physical education halls etc; strategies to help children who have high activity levels or poor concentration; and programmes to develop motor planning and co-ordination skills. Where necessary, follow-up visits to schools have been carried out to review progress and update programmes, as required.

The main advantage of this model of service is that the team gets a greater understanding of how the child functions in the "real" world, as opposed to assessing a child in a "clinic" setting. The approach also looks at the child as a whole, not just a set of difficulties, and can identify a child's strengths, which can be used to work on weaker areas. This approach also supports close communication between all of the professionals involved in the child's life and the child's family. It also increases the potential for working together and sharing of skills between all those involved.

School staff are very enthusiastic and positive about working with the support team and see this approach as a mechanism for improving their own skills and providing a better service to children with special needs. School staff are very committed to meeting the needs of children with special needs in their classes, are very open to using new approaches with these children and are very keen for guidance in their work. I have also received extremely positive feedback from parents who have interacted with the support teams. Everyone has gained from the sharing of skills and experience. I recognise the work of all those involved. In particular, the dedication of the disability manager for the HSE in the Kildare — west Wicklow area must be recognised. She has pre-empted the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and spearheaded this initiative, thereby giving us a model that hopefully will be rolled out throughout the country.

As we continue to incrementally improve our services and policies in the whole area of special needs, I want to make the case for increased resources to be provided for this school-based approach for our special needs children. I look forward to the appointment of another occupational and speech therapist to this team in the new year so that we will eventually have a team in each SENO area. I would like to highlight to the Department of Education and Science the importance of having the physical space for this programme included in all school extensions and new schools. In addition to increased resources, we also need to ensure we improve the cohesion between all the agencies involved in the area of special needs. This would lead to a more effective, needs-based, inclusive and co-ordinated service for our children.

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