Minister vows to restore students' access to therapeutic supports

The service will be under the remit of the National Council for Special Education.

The minister for education has pledged to restore thousands of vulnerable students’ access to vital therapeutic supports with a new national service beginning in the next school year.

The Irish Examiner highlighted numerous cases where schools lost access to in-school therapies, such as speech and language and occupational, when therapists were removed during 2020.

It left parents and teaching staff at special schools warning that children were missing out on key parts of their education.

Helen McEntee has now confirmed she plans to introduce a new national therapy service in education under her own department, beginning with special schools during the 2025/26 school year.

This is ahead of a wider roll out, commencing at the start of the 2026/27 school year.

She also plans to roll out these vital services eventually to special classes in mainstream schools.

The service will be under the remit of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

Overlapping with the closure of schools during the pandemic, the HSE’s Progressing Disabilities Services (PDS) model for children and young people saw services reconfigured and clinicians relocated from their special schools and onto Children’s Disability Network Teams.

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These teams, which are managed by the HSE and voluntary disability organisations, face their own set of challenges, including significant staff vacancies and increasing referrals.

Responsibility in this area is also split, with some overlap between departments, different agencies, and Government ministers, mainly the HSE, the Department of Disability, and the Department of Education.

Last August, the previous government announced it was to begin restoring in-school therapies with a pilot project running in 16 special schools.

However, recruitment was an issue. 

Last month, it emerged the HSE was still running recruitment in two of the six schools in Cork.

Ms McEntee says her initial focus with the new national therapy service will be on introducing speech and language therapy and occupational therapy into special education schools.

This is expected to be expanded into other therapeutic areas, such as physiotherapy, over time.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education has now sanctioned 399 special education classes for the next academic year.

These classes are expected to provide 2,700 new spaces in special classes attached to mainstream schools.

Up to 400 classes can be sanctioned this year. 

The minister has warned one school it may be compelled to open a class under legislative powers called Section 37.

An update is likely once the schools return after the Easter holidays.

Ms McEntee said that number should be 400 but that she was engaging with one further school.

The minister also recently announced that all student teachers will now undertake mandatory placements in special education settings.