Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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39. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of applications that have been received under the new scheme to support children with disabilities in the preschool sector; the type of support that will be available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33525/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The new Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), introduced in September 2016, enables children with disabilities to access and fully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme. The model delivers seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, to enable the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with disabilities in the ECCE Programme. The degree of support provided will depend on the needs of the child in the context of the pre-school service. The main supports offered under the model include:

- Access to a new higher education programme to upskill early years practitioners in inclusive early years care and education (LINC). My Department will fund a small capitation increase where service providers employ a graduate from the programme;

- A dedicated website containing comprehensive information resources for parents and providers;

- Advice and support from a team of 50 experts in early years education for children with disabilities (Level 4);

- A scheme for the provision of specialised equipment, appliances and minor building alterations (Level 5);

- Therapeutic intervention where this is needed to allow a child enrol, and fully participate in, pre-school (Level 6); and

- Additional capitation to enable the pre-school leader to buy-in additional support or reduce the staff to child ratio where this is critical to ensuring a child’s participation (Level 7).

The number of applications for targeted supports under AIM received to date is 2,145, which is broken down as follows:

1048applications for Level 4 support which relates to assistance and mentoring from a team of 50 Early Years Inclusion Specialists.

106applications for Level 5 which involves the provision of aids and appliances and minor capital grants.

186applications for Level 6 which relates to the provision of therapeutic support from the HSE.

805applications for level 7 which involves the provision of financial support for additional assistance in the pre-school setting.

A large number of applications were also received from practitioners for the new higher education programme (LINC). The programme commenced this autumn, with my Department funding up to 900 places per annum.