Meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children, 18 June 2015, concerning the developmentof quality and affordable childcare

Opening Statement of Rose Bradley, Senior Social Worker, on behalf of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC)

My name is Rose Bradley and I have worked as a Senior Social Worker with CRC in Waterford for over 12 years now.

The CRC provides therapy, medical, specialist, education and social services to children and young people with a range of disabilities from birth to 18 years. The CRC is the primary service provider for children from the Waterford Community Care area who have a primary physical disability.

Working as a social worker I am aware of the emotional impact on families when a child has significant disability and of the adjustments and adaptations that families have to make.

One of the recurring issues presented by families who attend CRC services is the lack of adequate supports within the mainstream pre-school environment for children with disabilities and my focus here today is directed on this lack of adequate supports.

Children with Disabilities and the ECCE Scheme

The Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (ECCE)(commonly known as the ‘free pre-school’ yea)was introduced in January 2010and gives children an entitlement to a free pre-school year.

But for children who need physical assistance, they are sometimes unable to avail of their entitlement in its entirety due to lack of supportsand are effectively discriminated against.

Supports are needed for children with disabilities to avail of the ECCE scheme. These supports can include: access to the appropriate equipment, technology, skilled staff, environment (e.g. accessible buildings) and transport.

Children with disabilities need equal access to the ECCE scheme. At times parents have found that they have had to pay privately for a support worker so that their child can access the free ECCE entitlement.

There is currently no system in place nationally which caters for the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support needs of children with disabilities in pre-school. The current system is inequitable for those children who are most vulnerable. This includes children with disabilities.

What is required for Children with Disabilities to access Pre-schools?

Every child is an individual and support needs vary from one child and family to the next.

For some children, placement in a special pre-school is the right option for them due to their particular needs and services required. Where special needs pre-schools co-exist with special schools this has ensured that the environment is accessible for all equipment needs and the teaching staffis supported by the multidisciplinary services. For example, the CRC has considerable experience in the provision of special needs pre-schools. CRC have two pre-school services integrated into the two special schools of CRC Clontarf Special School and ScoilMochua, Clondalkin.

For otherchildren, it is not always the most appropriate placement. Children for whom the plan is mainstream primary school require a supported mainstream pre-school placement beforehand.

Many children can benefit from one to two years in a special needs pre-school and can then be successfully transitioned to a local mainstream school. Some of the children documented in the Appendix of my written submissions have had such an experience.

Pre-school experience

The pre-school experience is vital in helping the child to be school ready and also to have opportunity to move on with their peers. For the child with special needs this experience requires adequate support, most especially that of a well-trained SNA.

Provision of a supported and supervised SNA is critical to supporting children in the mainstream pre-school environment.This service could be supported / provided by agencies such as the CRC to ensure staff are adequately trained and supervised.

The recommendations I have outlined on behalf of the CRC, in particular the extension of the SNA support structure to the pre-school sector, would,we feel, address this inequity.

Recommendations

  1. That the Department of Education and Skills extend the SNA support structure to children with disabilities in the pre school sector in the same way that it is offered to this group in primary and secondary schools currently .
  1. That the ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) Year be extended to two full years for all children. This would benefit children with disabilities.
  1. That consideration be given to increasing the numbers of community pre-schools. The provision of more community pre-schools would go some way to addressing the issue of distance to services and providing more choice to families.
  1. That innovative ways are looked at for the provision, support, training and supervision of SNAs.

In conclusion, a range of options needs to be provided from accessible mainstream pre-schools to special needs pre-schools which may be attached to specialist services or special schools.

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