Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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142. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department will considerextending the AIM programme to school-age childcare for children in receipt of the support for ECCE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26545/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has, since 2016, funded the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) 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.

AIM offers tailored, practical supports - both universal and targeted - based on need and does not require a formal diagnosis of disability. Over 20,000 children have received over 43,000 targeted supports in over 4,000 settings nationally since its introduction. These figures do not include the many more children and services that have benefited from the universal supports funded through AIM.

One of the commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, was to undertake an evaluation of AIM and subject to evaluation findings and other relevant developments, to consider 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 AIM evaluation is now close to completion. The final report is due to be published in quarter 4 of this year. The findings from the evaluation will inform further development of AIM, as committed to in First 5.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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143. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if his Department will consider extending the AIM programme to allow providers to hire an SNA through the AIM scheme given their skillset; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26546/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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In line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) does not fund Special Needs Assistants (SNAs). Rather, Level 7 of AIM provides financial support to the pre-school provider, which is used either to reduce the adult-to-child ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance to the pre-school room. Accordingly, AIM Level 7 assistance is a shared resource for the pre-school setting.

For this reason, staff who are supported with AIM Level 7 funding must adhere to the same qualification criteria as their colleagues in the early learning and care setting, as prescribed in Regulation 9 of the Early Years Services Regulations 2016. It is important to stress that the minimum qualification requirement to work directly with children in an early learning care service was introduced in 2016 in order to improve the quality of provision and to achieve better outcomes for children. To remove this minimum qualification requirement could be contrary to the best interests of children and the vision for the sector that is outlined in First 5, the whole-of-Government strategy to improve the lives of babies, young children and their families.

Individuals who wish to work directly with children in a pre-school service must hold at least a major award in Early Childhood Care and Education at Level 5 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), or a qualification deemed equivalent. My Department has published a list of qualifications that meet this regulatory requirement. If an individual's qualification does not appear on the list they may apply to my Department for assessment of equivalence of their qualification.