Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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431. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will consider expanding sponsor referrals to the national childcare scheme to include all children with developmental needs, even if they had been enrolled in a childcare programme previously; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2845/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The NCS sponsorship arrangement is in place to support families who need extra financial supports to access early learning and care and school aged childcare, over and above the financial supports available through the universal and income assessed components. The NCS Sponsorship arrangement allows designated bodies to refer children to the Scheme where childcare is needed on child welfare, protection, family support or other specified grounds.

Where a referral is made by a Sponsor body, the family will automatically qualify for a subsidy without having to satisfy the Scheme’s eligibility, income or enhanced hours requirements. The Scheme will pay the full weekly cost of childcare for families referred to the Scheme by a Sponsor Body up to the maximum of €264.15 depending on the age of the child and the hours required.

Separately, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme. Its goal is to empower pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE Programme and reap the benefits of high quality early learning and care. Eligibility for AIM supports is linked to participation in the universal ECCE pre-school programme.

AIM is based on the needs of the child in the context of the pre-school setting. It does not require any diagnosis, recognising that many children do not have a diagnosis of a disability when starting pre-school. AIM encompasses 7 levels of support, which includes universal supports (levels 1-3) and targeted supports (levels 4-7).

Universal supports are designed to create a more inclusive culture in early learning and care settings, through training courses and qualifications for staff. Where universal supports are not enough to meet the needs of an individual child, targeted supports are available to ensure the child can meaningfully participate in pre-school.

My Department keeps all childcare programmes under review to ensure that they are meeting their core objectives and to identify any changes or improvements that can be made to the scheme.

An evaluation of AIM has been completed and the report is currently being finalised. Subject to evaluation findings and other relevant developments, my Department is considering enhancements to, and/or extension of, AIM to, for example, all early learning and care services, all school-age childcare services and to children with additional needs other than a disability.

The sponsor arrangements are also being monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure the referral criteria meet their policy intent. The specific criteria are agreed in consultation with respective sponsoring body. My Department is currently engaging with the HSE on those criteria.