Special Educational Needs in Irish schools are a total disaster so this idea isn’t going to fix it. However, it might be a decent step in the right direction. When a child requires OT or SLT support, they join a very long waiting list and when they get an appointment, it’s generally during school, and often it’s difficult for parents to get out of work to bring them, and also they only last an arbitrary amount of time.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier to have OTs and SLTs that work in clusters of schools and take on caseloads for as long as they are needed. Granted some OT and SLT can only be performed in specialist rooms but for the most part, it surely must be possible to make these services mobile.
Perhaps, a solution might be to place OT and SLT services in local special schools and schools with special classes? This would give the most services to those in the most need and children in other schools could access them. Because “units” (I hate that term) contain an OT room by default, perhaps OTs and SLTs and other services could be clustered so they could work in a particular school 1-2 days per week.
These are just ideas but they might make a small difference to children with additional needs.
