Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1447. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to outline the level of funding that has been allocated to the AIM programme and the way he is ensuring that the AIM programme is implemented effectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38612/23]
View answerMy Department is committed to fully implementing the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) that supports children with disabilities and additional needs to access early education and care settings.
AIM provides a range of both universal and targeted measures, to support children with disabilities to take part in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) pre-school programme in mainstream settings, and to help make pre-school services more inclusive – benefiting all children in those services. The degree of support provided through AIM depends on the needs of the child in the context of the pre-school service.
AIM has seven levels of support, including universal supports (levels 1-3) and targeted supports (levels 4-7), based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting they are attending.
Universal supports (Levels 1-3):
• Level 1, which aims to embed an inclusive culture in services, includes the national inclusion policy and guidelines for Early Childhood Care and Education, the funding of the Leadership for Inclusion (LINC) training programme, the establishment of Inclusion Co-Ordinator (INCO) roles in ECCE settings.
• Level 2 involves provision of information for parents and providers on AIM, through the AIM website, and supports and information provided by County/City Childcare Committees.
• Level 3 recognises the requirement to continue to develop a qualified workforce that can confidently meet the needs of all children participating in the ECCE Programme. Supports include funding of training courses such as Hanen, Lámh and Sensory Processing E-Learning (SPEL).
Targeted supports (Levels 4-7):
• Level 4 addresses the needs of early learning and care practitioners to have timely access to advice and support from experts in early learning and care (and disability in particular) to assist them to meet each child’s needs.
• Level 5 recognises that some children require specialised equipment, appliances, assistive technology and/or that some early learning and care settings may require minor structural alterations to ensure children with a disability can participate in the ECCE programme. Supports include grants for equipment and some minor capital building works.
• Level 6 provides access to therapeutic supports where they are critical to enable a child be enrolled, and fully participate, in the ECCE programme.
• Level 7: Additional assistance in the pre-school room involves additional capitation for service providers where an application process has demonstrated that supports at Level 1-6 have not, or will not, by themselves, meet the child’s needs. Funding can be used by the provider to buy in additional support, or reduce the staff / child ratio, supporting the pre-school leader to ensure the child’s optimal participation.
Over 26,000 children in over 4,000 services have benefitted from targeted supports since AIM began in 2016.
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. An End-of-Year-Three evaluation of the AIM programme has now been completed, with the final report due to be published by the end of 2023. My Department continuously review processes and seek opportunities for service improvement to ensure AIM is implemented effectively.
The AIM budget for 2023 is €43.6 million.
