Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chair for the opportunity to be with Members here today to talk about the summer programme. It has been a particular focus for me as Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion. In fact, I have had the pleasure of visiting many of the summer programmes and have seen at first hand the immeasurable difference this programme makes to children with special educational needs and those experiencing educational disadvantage.

The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for the Government and my main focus, as the first ever Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion. I am determined to ensure continuous development of special education provision and policy to allow all children achieve the best possible outcomes in their lives. The summer programme is a very important scheme for pupils with special educational needs and those at great educational disadvantage. I very much want to see it supporting families and students with special educational needs during the summer months.

I thank all the members of the committee, especially the Chair, Senator Carrigy, and Deputy Buckley, who sponsored today's motion, for their dedication, commitment and hard work. It is important first to reflect on the significant progress the summer programme has made in recent years. I want to highlight how numbers have grown since 2019, with 2022 seeing more schools and students participate than ever before. More than 42,000 pupils benefited last year, with more than 1,000 schools running a programme. That was an increase of 20% compared to 2021. If we compare that again to the 2019 figures, when it catered for just 13,000, the numbers have grown by more than 300%. I am not saying there is not more to do, but I am just showing that there has been progress to date. As Members can see, the scale of the project has grown significantly in a short period and as a result so has the level of planning needed. It has helped more than 1,000 Ukrainian children to integrate into their new learning environments through last summer's programme.

I understand the importance of this crucial scheme for families and the children who participate in it. I am very conscious that summer can be a daunting time for the families of children with additional needs, and for some children who do not have enough interaction with friends and peers. I very much welcome the contribution made by the Joint Committee on Autism through its recent report on the summer programme. I again thank all of the committee members for their work, the Chairman, Senator Carrigy, and Deputy Buckley, for sponsoring the motion. The committee has been involved in a lot of work around the country helping people with autism.

I am in agreement with the report and I am committed to addressing the recommendations of the November 2022 report by the joint committee. My Department has also been preparing intensively for 2023 since last summer. I am delighted that the recommendations align with and support how we have been developing the programme. To start, the additional €20 million funding required for next year's programme was approved in budget 2023, bringing the total to €40 million for 2023.

My Department has conducted a review of the summer programme to ensure that we can build on the success of recent years. As part of this review, my Department took a very proactive approach and developed the 2023 programme based on this review and other forms of feedback including engagement with parents, advocacy groups, schools and management bodies with a view to encouraging more schools to participate this year. Department officials met with the principals of special schools in meetings around the country. It is very important that such engagement happens. They also met with officials from Malta on two occasions to utilise some of the learning from its system in the planning and organisation. It was also identified that a particular focus on special schools was needed in 2023 to ensure additional supports are made available to help them run a programme. The inspectorate in the Department has also visited schools, including special schools, as part of that process, and is liaising with staff, parents and the children who participated to help ensure that the review takes account of the lived experience.

The terms of the 2023 programme are being implemented following this comprehensive review and engagement with education partners and stakeholders since last summer, including the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Autism. I believe people will see the hard work my Department has done to develop this year's programme, and that we have listened to all stakeholders. I hope this will increase the number of schools offering the programme and the number of eligible children participating.

This year introduces a new theme for the summer programme, Building Confidence and Connections. The primary aim of this theme is to help children and young people to realise their potential, to be resilient in dealing with the normal stresses of their lives, to take care of their physical well-being and to have a sense of purpose, connection and belonging to their school community. All schools are encouraged to design their programme around this theme. Guidance and training material will be provided to schools to help them with this process. The summer programme is intended to be an enjoyable experience, and it always is, for both pupils and staff. The range of activities should reflect this year's theme and include opportunities for pupil-centred, play-based engagement.

This year, all primary school, special school and post-primary programmes will be able to provide a summer programme as well. DEIS numeracy and literacy camps, campaí samhraidh, are also still available in DEIS primary schools. They are very important too.

A home-based summer programme was also available for up to four weeks, with ten hours per week for students with complex special educational needs, where a place on a school-based programme was not available to them. However, a major focus this year is that those children with the most complex needs, especially in special schools, should have access to a school-based summer programme. That is what we want.

This year will see the introduction of a new pilot programme in special schools, which is good. It will be supported by a new national co-ordinator. That will bring a new focus to supporting and further engaging with these schools to help more special schools engage with the programme to support students in their schools during the summer period. However, my Department also hopes to increase the number of all schools offering the summer programme.

Additional steps will be provided to support schools, including support to ease the burden of administration, access to additional workforce availability and, importantly, a new leadership role in schools. This leadership will be available to schools when the details of the programme are announced and this role will be a support for schools with planning and preparation for their own programmes.

Graduate and student teachers can work on the summer programme where they have commenced the registration process with the Teaching Council and certain conditions are fulfilled. Schools will have the flexibility to engage staff who are not currently employed in their schools, including those in the early years and youth sectors or carers to run their summer programme. Other examples of which schools have previously successfully availed include students from therapy, nursing or other healthcare-related disciplines. These will also be supported this year in special schools.

Other enhanced measures from last year will continue to encourage schools' participation, including a centralised application process to reduce the administrative burden on schools, earlier payment of school staff and an additional capitation to cover the running costs of the scheme, as well as enhanced capitation for special schools. Last summer, for the first time, schools were able to submit the details of staff who worked on their programme through an online portal. The first payments issued in July and continued throughout the summer. More than 9,000 staff members were paid by the end of September for their participation in the school-based programme. That was of use from the feedback we had in previous years.

Members will no doubt have seen our announcement last October about this year's programme. The early announcement for 2023 and the further publication of terms for this year's programme in the coming days will afford schools every opportunity and several extra months to plan for this year's summer programme.

I reiterate my commitment to ensuring that the children who need it most have access to this important education initiative. My officials and I will work very hard to see this achieved. I very much look forward to hearing statements from the Members.

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