James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this very important matter. The visiting teacher service for children with hearing and visual impairments in Ireland provides support for the education of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and for children who are blind or who have significant visual impairment.Support is provided for parents in schools at the preschool stage and at primary and post-primary school levels. An independent review of this service was concluded in 2013-14 by two UK-based specialists in hearing and visual impairment. Their report, "Review of the Role, Organisation and Management the Visiting Teacher for Children with Hearing and Visual Impairment (VTHVI) Service, Ireland", was completed and published in June 2014 and it is available on the Department's website.

The 2014 review of the service recommended that: an appropriate structural framework be developed with clear lines of governance and a new management and leadership structure be developed to ensure that the direct management of the sensory support service is undertaken by a person with a specialist qualification in the field of either visual or hearing impairment.

Following the publication of this review of the services, in February 2015, the then Minister for Education and Skills announced the establishment within the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, of a new support service to assist schools in supporting children with special educational needs. The visiting teacher service for children who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or visually impaired was transferred to the NCSE with effect from that date, consistent with the recommendations of the review of the service.

Since that time the visiting teacher service has been managed by the council. This change was designed to ensure that schools can receive a better and more integrated service from the new support service. It also meant that the visiting teacher service could be incorporated into the overall support service provided through schools by the NCSE, including the services provided by special educational needs organisers, the special education support service and the national behavioural support service.

The service offers longitudinal support to students, their families and schools from the time of referral through to the end of post-primary education. Professional oversight is provided by the sensory specialist lead with specialist qualifications in the area of sensory disability. Operational oversight is provided by the sensory operational lead.

During the school closure period, the visiting teacher service continued to support parents and pupils remotely, while a range of additional resources have also been available online.

The NCSE is also continuing to improve the services. Continuous professional development is provided for visiting teachers, which includes access to the relevant postgraduate programmes for teachers of students who are blind or visually impaired. The NCSE is also seeking to further integrate the services within its regional teams to provide greater levels of support and training for schools. Accordingly, at this time there are no plans carry out a further review of the support service for the visually impaired. In conclusion, the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, thanks the Senator for giving her the opportunity to outline the important and sensitive work that the NCSE support service does for families with children who are visually impaired.