Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1126. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if the employment of staff under the AIM scheme will be clarified; and if staff employed under the scheme are required to have a FETAC level 5 qualification (details supplied). [5151/20]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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In line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) provides financial support to the pre-school provider which can be used either to reduce the adult to child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance. Accordingly, staff employed with funding under Level 7 of AIM are a shared resource for the pre-school room.

The Early Years Services Regulations require that all staff who are employed by an early learning and care provider to work directly with children of pre-school age must hold, at a minimum, a major award at level 5 on the NFQ in Early Childhood Care and Education or a qualification deemed equivalent by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The December 2016 amendment to the Regulations (S.I. no.632 of 2016) provided for exceptional cases in which an exemption from the Level 5 requirement may be made in the context of AIM. An example of a relevant situation is where a child with complex healthcare needs requires specialised health supports, such as nursing, in order to attend the pre-school.

Tusla, the independent statutory regulator of pre-school services, has published a Quality and Regulatory Framework (QRF), which specifies how the Regulations will be interpreted by the Early Years Inspectorate. The QRF (section 2, paragraph 6) specifies that exemption under AIM from the qualification requirement requires an exemption letter from Pobal.

This requirement for an exemption letter from Pobal is also specified in the Funding Agreement for the ECCE pre-school programme, which states, with reference to the Level 5 minimum qualification requirement, that "In exceptional cases, an exemption may be made under AIM, wherein a child with medically complex needs who is availing of AIM Level 7 requires specialised health supports, for example healthcare assistant or nursing care. An exemption may be granted by Pobal where it is considered that such specialist support is required and this may detail the qualification requirements or relevant specialist training of the staff member involved."