Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

227. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will consider a ring-fenced special education needs support fund, accessible at local level through the county child-care committee, to enable children with special needs to attend the early childhood care and education programme; if he is aware that in County Donegal 65% out of 170 children with special needs are unsupported by any form of grant assistance or specialist support at the programme level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33982/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The majority of children with special needs are able to access the free pre-school year, provided under the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, in mainstream pre-school services, without the provision of any additional supports. In the region of 67,000, including children with special needs, avail of the free pre-school provision each year.

My Department is committed to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to access and benefit from this free pre-school year and has, in addition to the HSE, made various practical efforts in recent years to support mainstreamed provision for children with special needs. These include: more flexible rules regarding access to the free pre-school year, the provision on a limited ad hoc basis by the HSE of funding towards the cost of pre-school support assistants in some areas, elective modules on special needs in mandatory courses for early years practitioners, and various initiatives by City and County Childcare Committees, HSE / HSE funded services, and by Better Start’s Early Years Specialist Service to support providers who need expert advice and guidance. In addition, the on-going reorganisation of disability therapy services into multi-disciplinary geographic-based teams by the HSE under the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme and the early intervention and support that reconfigured teams provide is of importance in the context of mainstreaming.

Nevertheless, this Government recognises that co-ordination and provision of appropriate supports for pre-school children with special needs could be improved. Accordingly, when I established the Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment in Early Years and School Age Care and Education, I included in its terms of reference the need to examine how best to provide for children with special needs within mainstream pre-school settings.

To advance this, the Departments of Children and Youth Affairs, Education and Skills, and Health are working together to develop a new model of supports for pre-school children with special needs. My Department is leading the process, with full and active support from the other two Departments and their respective agencies.

An Inter-Departmental Group comprising representatives from these three Departments, the HSE, Tusla, the National Council for Special Education, the National Disability Authority, Better Start and the Dublin City Childcare Committee has completed its work and has made a cross-departmentally supported proposal for the resources required as part of the Estimates process.