Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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242. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs for an update on progress in the delivery of free preschool services and special needs assistants for preschool children with disabilities; whom parents should contact to access these services for September 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8485/16]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I have been conscious for some time of the difficulty experienced by some children with a disability in accessing and benefitting fully from the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme. With this in mind an Inter-Departmental Group, led by this Department, was established in June 2015 with a brief to bring forward recommendations to address this issue.

The Group concluded its work and its recommendations were fully accepted and funded by Government. I announced, as part of Budget 2016, the necessary funding to implement a new practical, workable model for meeting the needs of children with a disability. The model will deliver seven levels of support to enable the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with disabilities in the ECCE Programme. These are:-

i. An Inclusive Culture: includes training dedicated Inclusion Co-ordinatorsin pre-schools, and a small capitation increase for particular childcare services to support fully inclusive practice;

ii. Information for Parents and Providers: includes development of a national website and information packs for parents and providers;

iii. A Qualified and Confident Workforce: resourcing formal and informal training for early years practitioners to support more inclusive provision;

iv. Expert Educational Advice & Support: enhancing the Better StartEarly Years Specialist Service so that practitioners have prompt access to advice and support from experts in early years education for children with disabilities;

v. Equipment, Appliances and Minor Alterations: the provision of specialised equipment, appliances, or capital grants to fund minor building alterations so that children with disabilities can participate in pre-school;

vi. Therapeutic Intervention: additional resources to enable access to HSE therapeutic services, where these are needed to allow a child enrol, and fully participate in, pre-school.

vii. Additional Assistance: where the supports available at levels 1-6 are not sufficient to meet a child’s needs, additional capitation can be made available to childcare providers to support the pre-school leader to ensure children’s full participation. This could include, for example, buying in additional support, or, in particular circumstances, reducing the staff:child ratio.

Work on the detailed design and implementation of the new model is at an advanced stage. For example, my Department and the Department of Education & Skills has worked with the Higher Education Authority to develop a new higher education special purpose award for early years practitioners which will see up to 900 early years practitioners graduate each year, qualifying them to perform the new role of Inclusion Co-ordinator in their Early Years Care and Education setting. The contract for developing and delivering this higher education programme was recently awarded to a consortium led by Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, in partnership with the Froebel Department in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and Early Childhood Ireland. The consortium is now planning for the registration of new graduates on a nationwide basis for September 2016. This means that we can expect our first Inclusion Co-ordinator graduates in pre-school settings in September 2017.

Under level 4 of the model, fifty Early Years Specialists are being recruited to deliver the National Access and Inclusion service which will be operational from June 2016. This will be a significant support to providers and parents in planning for enrolment for children with disabilities.

Work is also well advanced across many other elements of the model with a view to introducing the initiative from September 2016. It is intended that service providers and parents will be able to submit applications for supports under the new model from June 2016 onwards to allow them to plan for pre-school enrolment in September 2016 and to ensure that children will begin to benefit from these measures from that point forward.

A dedicated website, hosted by the Department and containing comprehensive information on the new model, will be launched very shortly.

Finally, the Deputy has asked specifically about special needs assistants for pre-school children with disabilities. The new model does not involve the provision of special needs assistants and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs does not fund such services. The HSE does, on an ad hoc basis, make some supports available and it is expected that these arrangements will continue until the new model has been established.