Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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19. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has considered utilising workers in small creches who are let go during the summer months to give them an option to work and provide the July provision. [34863/22]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In May of this year, Minister Foley and I were delighted to be able to announce this year’s Summer Programme. It is anticipated to support well over 45,000 children with special educational needs and children at most risk of educational disadvantage, which is a huge priority for this Government.  These children were impacted greatly by the impact of Covid-19 and the disruption it has caused to their education.   

Building on the 2021 programme, all primary and post primary schools can offer a summer programme and in line with last year’s funding, there is up to €40 million available. In 2021, nearly 38,000 children availed of the summer programme, an increase of 60% from the previous year.

A key objective of this year’s scheme is to increase the number of schools offering the summer programme to their students. Steps have been taken to afford schools as much flexibility as possible, and to ease administrative requirements. This year there is provision to recruit newly qualified teachers graduating this summer, as well as undergraduate student teachers who have registered with the Teaching Council under Route 5.

To support and facilitate schools and principals with organising and running the programme, the 2022 Summer Programme allows principals to delegate these functions to other members of staff through the Overseer role and preparation hours. The Overseer and preparation roles provide an exciting personal opportunity for teachers to develop their leadership skills and experience with recognition at a whole-school level.

Schools can employ teachers and/or SNAs from outside of their school if the staff normally employed by the school are not available for any/all of the summer programme. 

Under the home-based programme grant funding is made available so that parents/legal guardians can engage the services of a Teacher or an SNA to provide tuition or care support as appropriate in the child’s home.

Parents or schools can engage the services of a person not registered with the Teaching Council in the role of an SNA for the duration of the Summer Programme.

To help teachers and SNAs identify summer programme vacancies in schools, the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) has created Summer Provision Noticeboards. These noticeboards can be viewed on www.educationposts.ie . This will help schools to find relevant staff in their local area.

My Department will continue to work with education partners and stakeholders with a view to addressing future plans for the Summer Programme.