Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if all children attending a special school will be facilitated on the school-based summer programme 2023, if this is their choice; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22626/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for this question - it give me an opportunity to update the House on this very important scheme for children with special educational needs.

Minister Foley and I secured funding of €40m in the budget last year to ensure that a comprehensive summer programme would be available in 2023. This builds on the successful summer programmes which ran in 2021 and 2022. Full details of the programme were published on 9th February 2023. These earlier announcements, initially in the Budget and then in February, were to support schools and staff to plan for the summer programme much earlier that was possible in previous years.

I am delighted to say that all schools, once again, have an opportunity to run a programme for those children for whom this support would be most beneficial. Our main priority in 2023 is that those children with the most complex educational needs, especially in special schools, should have access to a school-based summer programme.

The terms and conditions for this year are being implemented following a comprehensive review and engagement with education partners, parents, schools and other stakeholders. My Department has listened to the feedback and designed this year's programme to encourage more schools and staff to participate.

In 2023, we have introduced a new pilot Special School Summer Programme, which has been designed to ensure supports and funding are targeted to enhance the availability of the school-based programme in this setting.

The summer programme is reliant on schools and their staff choosing to participate on a voluntary basis. As part of this pilot, a National Coordinator has been introduced to liaise with special schools to help facilitate them in running a programme.

To address staffing needs, a portal is available on Educationposts.ie for teachers, SNAs, student teachers and other students in relevant disciplines to register their interest in working on the programme this year. There are over 1,500 personnel registered as a resource to schools, and it is hoped that this will be of huge benefit to schools who may be experiencing staffing challenges in running a summer programme.

A series of live recorded webinars were delivered to all schools to encourage and support them in their preparations, and recordings are available on the Department’s website. Further training for special schools is also taking place.

This year’s programme builds on the progress that has been made over the last number of years, which has seen participation of children grow from 13,000 in 2019 to over 42,000 in 2022. The measures introduced this year are proving successful and based on registration to date, it is anticipated that there will be a 20% increase on the overall figures and a 50% increase on the number of special schools participating in 2023.

Where a place on the school-based programme is unavailable, the Home Based Summer Programme is available again this year for those pupils with complex special education needs. All schools have been emailed directly with full details.

I also recognise that the Home Based Programme doesn’t work for every child. That is why the role of the National Coordinator was established with a particular focus on increasing the participation of special schools. This is bearing fruit with interest being expressed by a significantly greater number of special schools in 2023 than before. In future years, we envisage more schools taking part as the Summer Programme continues to develop.

Also, this year we are promoting the Private Group Provider element of the Home based programme where groups and organisations can seek funding to provide programmes, with staffing profiles similar to special classes, and these can support children with more complex needs. My Department is currently engaging with a number of interested groups to develop this service in different parts of the country where it is needed the most.