Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this really important issue. He is right to raise it now because it comes around very quickly. All credit to both the Minister for Education and the Minister of State with responsibility for special education as they have done phenomenal work to improve access to this programme.

The needs of children with complex special educational needs and children at most risk of educational disadvantage continue to be a huge priority for Government. There has been significant progress in the summer programme over the past few years. Numbers have grown substantially since 2019 with 2023 seeing more schools and students participate than ever before. Provisional figures show that over 1,200 schools participated this year compared to 1,000 schools in 2022.

In particular, there has been an increase of more than 50% of special schools that participated this year. This means that 59 special schools have taken part this year - more than ever before - but I do take on board the points made by the Senator, which is that many did not take part. This increase in participation, particularly among special schools, follows an extensive review of the programme and the introduction of new measures to give meaningful support to schools and staff.

Following extensive consultation with education stakeholders and advocacy groups representing families of children with disabilities, steps taken to encourage more schools to participate in 2023 included a new initiative to the scheme for special schools. This initiative had been designed and developed to ensure supports and funding are targeted to enhance the availability of a school-based programme for pupils in special schools. As part of this pilot, a national co-ordinator was appointed to liaise with special schools to help them run a summer programme.This has proven successful with more than 50% of special schools participating. Schools were also given flexibility to engage staff who were not employed in the school. The Senator spoke to the school in Galway that was able to employ 37 staff members so that just shows how successful it is. A staff portal was made available for teachers and special needs assistants, SNAs, to register their interest in working on a school-based programme. Student teachers and students in relevant disciplines such as therapy, social care, nursing and others including early childcare workers and carers, were also able to register their interest. More than 1,900 people registered their interest in 2023. Other key additional supports were also put in place for both school and teacher SNAs involved in the programme. In 2023, instead of preparation hours, there was a dedicated role of school organiser in each school and they received an enhanced payment of €3,000 for this role. For special schools, the length of the day was reduced from the full school day to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the same daily rate being paid to staff taking part. This again recognised the challenges associated with running the programme in a special school. In order to reflect the unique circumstances that would have arisen in a special school during the summer months, additional grant funding of €2,000 was provided for each week a special school provided a school-based summer programme. In fairness to the Ministers, they have worked really hard to try to encourage special schools to take part.

Other enhanced measures from last year have been continued to encourage schools’ participation. This includes a centralised application process to reduce administration burden on schools; earlier payment of school staff - something I heard was a deterrent before; an additional capitation to cover the running costs of the scheme; as well as enhanced capitation for special schools. A home-based summer programme was also made available for students with complex special educational needs where a place on a school-based programme was not available to them. Under this strand, grant funding was made available so that parents or the legal guardians could engage the services of a teacher or an SNA to provide tuition or care support as appropriate in the child’s home. Parents of eligible children were able to arrange the programme over the summer holidays to best suit their needs. Following the budget yesterday, I am delighted that funding in line with 2023 will once again be available to provide the summer programme in 2024.