Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

429. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will provide a progress report on the Programme for Government commitment to fully implement the access and inclusion model; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44726/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Programme for Government committed to fully implement the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) that helps children with additional needs to access early education and care settings.

AIM provides a range of both universal and targeted measures, to support children with disabilities to take part in the ECCE pre-school programme in mainstream settings, and to help make pre-school services more inclusive – benefiting all children in those services. The degree of support provided through AIM depends on the needs of the child in the context of the pre-school service.

AIM has seven levels of progressive support, moving from universal supports (levels 1-3) to targeted supports (levels 4-7), based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting they are attending.

Universal supports (Levels 1-3):

- Level 1, which aims to embed an inclusive culture in services, includes the national inclusion policy and guidelines for ECCE, the funding of the Leadership for Inclusion (LINC) training programme, the establishment of Inclusion Co-Ordinator (INCO) roles in ECCE settings, and a small increase in capitation of €2 per registered ECCE child for services with qualified Inclusion Co-ordinators.

- Level 2 involves provision of information for parents and providers on AIM, through the AIM.gov.ie website, and information provided by County/City Childcare Committees.

- Level 3 recognises the requirement to continue to develop a qualified workforce that can confidently meet the needs of all children participating in the ECCE Programme. Supports include funding of training courses such as Hanen, Lámh and Sensory Processing E-Learning (SPEL).

Targeted supports (Levels 4-7):

- Level 4 addresses the needs of early learning and care practitioners to have timely access to advice and support from experts in early learning and care (and disability in particular) to assist them meet each child’s needs.

- Level 5 recognises that some children require specialised equipment, appliances, assistive technology and/or that some early learning and care settings may require minor structural alterations to ensure children with a disability can participate in the ECCE programme. Supports include grants for equipment and some minor capital building works.

- Level 6 provides access to therapeutic supports where they are critical to enable a child be enrolled, and fully participate, in the ECCE programme.

- Level 7: Additional assistance in the pre-school room involves additional capitation for service providers where an application process has demonstrated that supports at Level 1-6 have not, or will not, by themselves, meet the child’s needs. Funding can be used by the provider to buy in additional support, or reduce the staff/child ratio, supporting the pre-school leader to ensure the child’s optimal participation.

In total, 17,316 children in 3,786 services have benefitted from targeted AIM supports since AIM began in 2016.

For the 2021/22 programme year, 2,377 initial applications for Level 7 support were received by the end of August. This is the largest number of applications received by the end of August since AIM began operating in 2016. It represents a 69% increase on the number of applications received at the same point in time in 2020, and a 16% increase on the number of applications received at the end of August 2019 for the 2019/20 programme year.

By the end of August 2021, 159 applications for Level 5 support had been received (142 equipment and 17 alterations), which is 47% higher than the number received at this time last year and is 137% higher than the number received at the same time of year in 2019.

An evaluation of the AIM programme is currently underway, with the final report due to be published in early 2022. The evaluation of AIM builds on an earlier End of Year One Review of AIM and an interim evaluation of the LINC programme.