Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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42. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress of the development of the new plan for education inclusion. [1889/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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A great deal of work has gone into the review of the DEIS Programme which began in 2015 and is progressing very well and it is my intention to publish a new Action Plan for Educational Inclusion in the coming weeks.

The review process has looked at all aspects of DEIS, including the range and impact of different elements of the School Support Programme, the potential for innovation within and between schools and its scope for increased integration of services provided by other Departments and Agencies in order to improve effectiveness.

The development of a new assessment framework using centrally held CSO and DES data for the identification of schools for inclusion in a new Programme is also included in the review process. 

A series of pilot schemes aimed at introducing measures shown to work well in improving results for disadvantaged students will be introduced. Targeted measures to be included are, School Leadership, School networking/clustering, teaching methodologies, integration of all supports within communities, and greater use of HSCL services.

Implementation of actions arising from the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion will begin in the 2017/18 school year, and will be a continuing theme in our wider Annual Action Plan for Education.