Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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231. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he intends to expand the ECCE services to include children with additional needs in preschool-age classes; the engagement he has had with the Department of Education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6415/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has made extensive provision to support children with additional needs in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme.

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), which is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access ECCE. 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.

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 has seven levels of progressive support. Universal supports (levels 1-3) empower early learning and care providers to create a more inclusive culture in their setting through an Inclusion Charter and Guidelines for pre-schools, and a level 6 qualification in Leadership for Inclusion (LINC).

Targeted supports (levels 4-7) are based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting they are attending. These supports include expert early years educational advice from Better Start Early Years Specialists, capital grants for special equipment and/or minor alterations for pre-school settings, and therapy supports. AIM level 7 support provides additional funding to pre-schools who have a child requiring extra support. Providers can use this funding either to reduce the child-to-adult ratio in the pre-school room or to fund an extra staff member as a shared resource with other children in the ECCE setting.

One of the commitments within First 5, a Government Strategy for Babies and Children, was to undertake an end-of-year-three evaluation of AIM. That evaluation has now been completed, with the final report due to be published later this year. Subject to evaluation findings and other relevant developments, Department officials will be considering enhancements to, and/or expansion of AIM to, for example, all ELC services and/or to children outside of the eligible age range for the ECCE programme.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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233. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to pilot the provision of a range of meal options to children, including the provision of hot meals in early learning settings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6419/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Following my announcement of the hot meals pilot scheme in November 2022, my Department have collaborated with Pobal to recruit nine services as pilot sites to examine the delivery of an enhanced food offer in sessional pre-school and part-time services. Given that a large number of settings including all full-day care services already provide this service, the aim of this pilot is to provide an in-depth, qualitative test of the logistics and impact of hot meal provision across other types of setting.

Additionally, this pilot will be testing the delivery of different meal options. These include:

- A breakfast or snack

- A breakfast or snack, plus a packed lunch to take home

- A hot meal or snack

The provision of healthy food in Early Years settings will have a positive impact on children’s health, well-being and development, as well as their social participation.

The roll-out has commenced in Q1 of 2023, and results of the pilot scheme will inform decisions regarding a wider roll out. Additionally, the pilot will inform my Department’s ongoing work to develop a DEIS-type model for early learning and childcare, which aims to provide services with a proportionate mix of universal and targeted supports to support children and families accessing their services who are experiencing disadvantage.