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Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Josepha Madigan today announced details of a pilot programme to support transitions from school for students with complex special educational needs.
The programme is a collaborative initiative between the Department of Education and Walkinstown Association for People with an Intellectual Disability (WALK), an experienced NGO working in this sector. Under the 2022 Dormant Accounts Fund Action Plan, the Department of Education received €500,000 for this programme. WALK will be supported to deliver its Peer Ability programme across 10 schools.
Minister Foley said:
“I am pleased that we will be able to use this funding to support, nurture and encourage students with complex special educational needs in their ambitions for life after school. This pilot project will provide a valuable support structure to enable students with complex special educational to transition to the best post-school option for them whatever that may be.”
Minister Madigan said:
“We know how important it is to support effective transitions for young people. I welcome this initiative and, in particular, the support that will be offered to participant young people for a number of years after they have left school. Evaluation of the programme will provide important longitudinal data which will be used to inform future work in this area.”
The WALK Peer Ability programme will take place across ten project school sites based in Louth, Dublin, Kerry, Cork and Kilkenny. The schools will be supported by a careers and employment facilitator, to engage with students and their parents and collaborate with teachers in complementary activities such as mini-companies, work experiences and transition planning. The partnership between the schools and WALK will be managed through a memorandum of understanding.
The key objectives of the project are to:
The programme will be evaluated and the findings will be used to inform future policy development in this area.
The Dormant Accounts Acts 2001-2012, together with the Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Act 2003, provide a framework for the administration of unclaimed accounts in credit institutions (banks, building societies and An Post) and unclaimed life assurance policies in insurance undertakings).
The main purpose of the legislation is to reunite account or policy holders with their funds in credit institutions or insurance undertakings and in this regard, these bodies are required to take steps to identify and contact the owners of dormant accounts and unclaimed life assurance policies.
However, in order to utilise the unused funds the legislation also introduced a scheme for the disbursement of funds that are unlikely to be reclaimed from dormant accounts and unclaimed policies for the purposes of measures to assist:
1. the personal and social development of persons who are economically or socially disadvantaged
2. the educational development of persons who are educationally disadvantaged; or
3. persons with a disability