Ministers Foley and Naughton announce the recruitment campaign for therapists to work in schools with children

Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister for Special Education and Inclusion Hildegarde Naughton today announced the recruitment campaign for therapists to work in schools with children

The therapists will part of the new Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS), which was established in June 2024.

The recruitment campaign will see the appointment of 39 occupational and speech and language therapists as well as 5 behaviour practitioners on a permanent basis to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). Previously, these positions could only be filled on a temporary basis, which made it more difficult to recruit for them.

ETSS therapists will work with teachers in classrooms to collaboratively design and deliver educationally-relevant interventions for students with a range of needs. This will allow, for example, a teacher and an occupational therapist to explore opportunities to integrate more movement into learning to support regulation or for a speech and language therapist to model evidence-based vocabulary strategies in the classroom.

This service is an addition to HSE Primary Care and Children’s Disability Network Teams, which will continue to offer children one-to-one appointments with therapists.

The staff in the ETSS will support special schools and this will be in addition to the government pilot for enhanced in-school therapy supports in 16 special schools which was announced in August 2024 and has commenced in Dublin, Galway and Cork.

Minister Foley said:

Minister Naughton said:

As part of this recruitment campaign the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is advertising to fill a number of staff and senior grade occupational therapy and speech and language therapy posts.

The positions are being advertised now with a closing date of 30 January 2025. Salaries are in line with the HSE consolidated pay scales (October 2024) for therapy grades.

ETSS Therapists will work with teachers in classrooms to collaboratively design and deliver educationally-relevant interventions for students with a range of needs.

Speech and language and occupational therapists will be embedded across the NCSE’s regional team structure. They will also work in partnership with school communities, NCSE colleagues and, where appropriate, National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) and HSE professionals.

The Educational Therapy Support Service provides two strands of support:

1) A sustained in-school therapy for a period of 24 months, which has already been successfully used during the the School Inclusion Model (SIM) pilot

2) Regional therapy support which includes teacher professional learning seminars with follow-up in-school implementation support and the design and development of therapy resources with education colleagues

A robust prioritisation process ensued and initially 22 schools in the Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow region have been prioritised for NCSE sustained in-school support for 2024-2026. The number of schools being supported under this model is expected to grow in line with recruitment.

The first seminars and in-school support for teachers began in October 2024. The recruitment of permanent staff will allow the NCSE to expand the service further.

Limerick has been identified as the most suitable hub for the Western region and it is anticipated that schools in Limerick and Tipperary will be invited to apply for sustained in-school support in early 2025, subject to the recruitment of appropriate personnel by the NCSE during this campaign.

It is envisaged that teacher professional learning seminars for both Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy, with follow up in-school support, will be available nationally for 2025/2026.

The ETSS will enable the NCSE to work in a complementary manner with health services, such as primary care and disability teams, with a view to addressing systemic issues in the provision of therapeutic supports to children and young people.

The delivery of the ETSS is in line with recent NCSE policy advice ‘Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society’. The policy advice recommends that ‘the School Inclusion Model (SIM) should be expanded nationally to ensure that all schools in the country have access to therapeutic supports.’

The therapy services provided through the SIM programme worked to develop the capacity of teachers. The new ETSS will see teachers and therapists collaborating in identifying and delivering the most appropriate supports for children and young people including those with special educational needs.

The overarching purpose of the ETSS will be to improve learning outcomes for students, ensure teachers are better equipped to support all students and reduce the demand for additional resources in schools including applications for additional SNAs.

They will also work in partnership with school communities, NCSE colleagues and where appropriate NEPS and HSE professionals to promote the participation and inclusion of all students, particularly those with special education needs, across all levels of a multi-tiered system of support, providing individualised/intensive educational support to students with the greatest level of need.

Significant additional resources and funding has been allocated to the NCSE in recent Budgets to allow for the expansion of its services. Over the last year the NCSE has made significant progress in recruiting additional Special Education Needs Organisers (SENOs), Team Managers and Advisors. The NCSE now has 120 SENOs nationwide, an increase from 65. The recruitment of the therapists will be an integral part of that expansion.