Election mania is in full swing. The promises have my head addled. I’m trying to decide who’s saying what so that I can cast an informed vote. We live about 200 metres in from the road. I will be surprised if we see any canvassers.

Since schools reopened in September, I’m cross. I’m sure many of you have wondered why parents of children with additional needs have been protesting looking for therapists to be put back into special schools. Where did they go? The therapists or clinicians I refer to work in speech and language, psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social work. Together they are known as the multi-disciplinary team.

When my son Diarmuid started in Our Lady of Good Counsel school, a school for pupils with a moderate intellectual disability, in 1992, there were virtually no therapists. Over time and with serious agitation from the school community there was a pretty good service in OLGC with therapists working with pupils and alongside teachers.

The history

It is important to remember that the reason for multi-disciplinary intervention is so that a child can access learning. It levels the playing field for them. They may need one-to-one therapy or something like a communication device to start their learning journey. The consequence of being without this help is catastrophic and delays their educational development. Many of these pupils also have additional complex needs.

After an examination of the issues by the National Disability Authority in 2015, the Government decided that therapists would be taken out of special schools and placed in the community into children’s disability network teams. This was so that children with additional needs in mainstream schools could access the service. Fair enough.

Nobody envisaged that this would leave pupils from special schools with nothing due to the skeleton service and long waiting lists. Families and teachers protested but no one listened.

The therapists were removed from the special schools in 2018. Very quickly, people realised that a good service had been taken from them.

Many representations have been made to Government over the last few years by teachers and parents and Minister for Education Norma Foley, accepted that mistakes were made and that the therapists needed to be put back into the schools. Lo and behold, in September, she announced that she’d be instigating a pilot scheme for 16 schools and so, the uproar began while the schools that were left out tried to get into the pilot scheme. I heard the principal of OLGC, Aisling Power, eloquently laying out the case with RTÉ’s Clare Byrne during October.

Now, my point is this; there was no need whatsoever to have a pilot scheme. It was well established, years ago, that these services were needed and had been effective in special schools for over 20 years. It is purely a delaying tactic and a very disingenuous move by the government.

Disingenuous move

A pilot scheme is also a kick in the face for pupils in the special schools that are left out. As a parent, I would be so angry.

Let’s get the terminology right; this is about the reinstatement of a service that worked in special schools for decades. At the time we didn’t consider it enough. Now we look back and realise how lucky the pupils were to have a good service up to 2018. Isn’t that very sad?

We are nearly at Christmas. No clinician has walked through the door in OLGC. I believe they are only talking about appointing speech and language and occupational therapists at this stage. No mention of the other therapists. So, when you open that door to the politicians, make sure you’re sorting real issues from spin stories.