Written answers
Wednesday, 17 May 2023
Department of Education and Skills
Educational Disadvantage
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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81. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to expand the model of the NEIC (North East Inner City) Multidisciplinary Teams to include all schools with a DEIS band 1 status in Dublin 9 and 11. [23371/23]
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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84. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of expanding the model of the NEIC (North East Inner City) Multidisciplinary Teams Model to include all schools with a DEIS band 1 nationwide. [23375/23]
Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 81 and 84 together.
The Department of Education is committed to supporting a quality and inclusive school system that provides an equal opportunity at success for all children, including those at risk of educational disadvantage. In line with the programme for Government, the Government is continuing to examine how the model of intervention in the north-east inner city could be extended to other comparative areas experiencing disadvantage.
The North East Inner City Multi-Disciplinary Team (NEIC MDT) comprises of Educational Psychologists from the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) of the Department of Education (DE), and Health Service Executive (HSE) Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and a Psychologist This project is an interagency collaboration between the HSE and DE which provides a multidisciplinary team to ten NEIC primary schools. The NEIC MDT provide school staff, children and families access to on-site Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Psychology; it also offers psychology support to families through the HSE Psychologist on the team. The MDT provide a wraparound service including preventative work, early intervention, assessment and therapeutic intervention, to support all children, school staff and families.
The MDT teams provide a needs-based school service that responds to the presenting issues for each child, their family and school.
Ongoing research, evaluation and monitoring of the Multidisciplinary Team intervention will inform further policy developments in this area, including modelling of potential expansion costs.
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for the establishment of fully resourced and staffed nurture rooms within all schools with a DEIS band 1 status in Dublin 9 and 11; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23372/23]
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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85. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost for the establishment of fully resourced and staffed nurture rooms within all schools with a DEIS band 1 status throughout the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23376/23]
Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 82 and 85 together.
I would like to thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following:
The provision of appropriate accommodation for all pupils including pupils with special education needs is an absolute priority for me. This is in two respects: firstly in ensuring that there is sufficient provision for pupils with special education needs and secondly in designing school accommodation that meets the needs of all users and enhances the learning experience.
In order to make accommodation provision to meet the needs of students with special education requirements, my Department has close engagement with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) which has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. When the NCSE sanction a special class in a school, the school can apply to my Department for capital funding to re-configure existing spaces within the school building to accommodate the class or to construct additional accommodation. Similarly, where special schools wish to expand provision, the school can apply to my Department for capital funding to accommodate additional placements.
The NCSE has additionally provided my Department with projections of future requirements for classes for students with special education requirements. These are informing my Department's advance planning for special class accommodation.
Such classrooms for pupils with special education needs are included as standard in the accommodation brief for new school buildings and major extension projects. The overall accommodation suite for students with special education needs also generally includes ancillary accommodation such as a Central Activities Space, a Multi Activity Room and Quiet Spaces as well as an outdoor Secure Play Area and Sensory Garden.
With regards to nurture rooms, a working group has been established comprising of NEPS psychologists and inspectors to review the suitability of nurture rooms for children and young people with special educational needs. The final report on the suitability of nurture rooms is expected to be finalised and submitted by the end of 2023.
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for the expansion of the support teacher service to all of the schools with a DEIS band 1 status in Dublin 9 and 11; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23373/23]
Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost for the expansion of the support teacher service to all of the schools with a DEIS band 1 status the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23377/23]
Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 86 together.
My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non DEIS to support the inclusion of all students and barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity In Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at a school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post primary sector.
In 1995, the Support Teacher Project was established in order to assist primary schools with children who were experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. These are standalone posts which were introduced to provide a behaviour support service to primary schools and provide support to combat challenging behaviour and for the social, emotional and personal development of the targeted children in a holistic manner. There are currently approximately 40 Support Teacher Posts. Given the developments in relation to schools’ supports in this area overall, the Inspectorate has conducted evaluations in a number of primary schools in Dublin and Cork which have support teachers. A composite report on the quality of work of support teachers was published by the DE Inspectorate in December 2020. This report recommended the retention of the Support Teacher Project as a discrete resource in schools serving areas of acute disadvantage.
I recognise there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past three budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard. As part of Budget 2023, I announced over €50 million to provide free books to primary school pupils within the free education scheme from next September. In March last year, I announced a major expansion of the DEIS programme which means that, for the first time since 2017 the programme was significantly expanded to an additional 322 schools. The programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students are now supported in then programme. There are now over 300 schools classified as Urban Band 1 status across the country that receive additional supports to reflect the greater concentration of disadvantage. I have also improved the staffing schedule for all primary schools to 23:1, the lowest it has even been, with an even more beneficial rate for Urban Band 1 schools.
My Department recognises the need to target resources to those schools who need them most, the next phase of work will explore the allocation of resources to schools to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of this programme of work will consider all resources provided to schools in this regard. This work will involve a process of stakeholder engagement in the coming months.
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