Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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246. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of one to one therapy that will be provided under the speech and language and occupational therapies pilot or demonstration project; if each child who requires therapy will receive it; and if this is an alternative to the HSE waiting list [23366/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I recently announced that a demonstration project to provide in-school and pre-school therapy services will be introduced for the 2018/19 school year.

The project will be managed and co-ordinated by the National Council for Special Education.

The model has been developed by the Departments of Education and Skills, Children and Youth Affairs, Health, and the Health Service Executive (HSE) and National Council for Special Education, and is part of the Government’s overall aim to help every child to fulfil their full potential.  

The purpose of the project is to develop and  test a model of tailored therapeutic supports that allows for early intervention in terms of providing speech and language and occupational therapy within educational settings. 

This innovative pilot will complement the existing HSE funded provision of essential therapy services. It will not act as an alternative or replacement model for these existing HSE services. Children who are attending schools participating in the pilot project, and who receive support from the therapy project in schools, will still qualify for, and access HSE provided therapy supports in the normal way.

This project is designed to bring together therapists and educational professionals who have until now often operated separately.

It will allow them to work together to plan, collaborate, and share their professional knowledge and expertise to  more efficiently support greater numbers of pupils in school environments, where there are often large concentrations of need.

The In-School and Pre-School Therapy project will use a multi-tiered approach to providing  Universal, Targeted, and Specialist support, along a continuum of provision, depending on the needs of the child/pupil.

The continuum of support model means that the greater, or more severe the level of need, the more intensive the level of support.

The therapists will provide training for teachers and parents in speech language and occupational therapy needs in schools and provide specific training and support to schools and preschools to enable them to deliver structured interventions to children at risk of educational or other difficulties as a result of their therapy needs.

Targeted support will also be provided for some pupils who have significant and persistent Speech, Language and Communication Needs and Occupational Therapy needs. These pupils will receive direct interventions and support from the therapists in schools.

The amount of one to one therapy directly provided by therapists in schools will depend on the extent of needs arising in particular schools, the severity of needs of the individual pupils, and the effectiveness of the interventions which have been put in place following consultation between therapists and teachers.