Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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546. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to provide supports for children who have a disability to attend after-school clubs and avail of the community childcare subvention programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2829/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I believe it is important to break-down barriers and create equal opportunities for children with disabilities to take part in the mainstream education right from the start.  This has to begin in early childhood. 

An example of such a policy programme that has the capacity to enhance the lives of children with disabilities is the AIM programme which was developed by my Department.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with a disability can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. Its goal is to support early years providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience. AIM is a child-centred and evidence-based model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs and strengths of the child and the early years setting. Supports provided under AIM include: the development of an inclusive culture; enhanced continuing professional development for early years practitioners; the provision of equipment, appliances and grants for minor alterations; access to therapeutic intervention and increased capitation for early years providers in the case of children with very complex needs. AIM was launched in June 2016 and is administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department. 

AIM is designed to support children to access the ECCE programme. The child must qualify on age grounds for the ECCE programme and the early years provider must be registered with Tusla and hold an active DCYA contract to deliver the ECCE programme. The only exception to this is where the child qualifies for the ECCE programme but is availing of early childhood care and education services funded under another DCYA childcare programme such as the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) or Training and Education Childcare (TEC) programmes. 

In its first year, AIM provided 2,486 children with 4,760 targeted supports to ensure that they could fully participate in the ECCE programme. In the current programme year, AIM has provided 3,071 children with 4,474 targeted supports to date.

At the moment, there are no plans to extend AIM supports beyond the ECCE programme to cater for children in after-school care or the CCS Programme. However, I wish to note that the benefits of AIM are extending beyond pre-school children to these and other cohorts. AIM universal supports are benefitting all children in early years settings through for example, improvements in inclusive practice within these settings and improvements in knowledge and competence among the staff in relation to disability.  

An End of Year One Review of AIM is underway and will be completed in mid-2018. This will be followed by a full and more in-depth end of year three evaluation of AIM in 2019. These reviews will examine what has worked well and identify where improvements could be made to the Model. They will also help to inform consideration of possible future AIM expansion.