Four Cork schools to benefit from therapist pilot; TDs also call for therapists’ return to St Killian’s

Four special schools in Cork are to be included in a pilot scheme which would see the return of vital therapists to schools.

The schools, which have yet to be officially confirmed, are understood to include St Paul’s Special School, Our Lady of Good Counsel Special School in Ballincollig, Carrigaline Community Special School, and Rochestown Special School.

Two Dublin schools are also set to be part of the scheme.

Speaking to The Echo, Tánaiste Mícheál Martin said he was calling for more schools to be added to the pilot, including St Killian’s on Cork’s northside.

He said in the background to the announcement was a divergence of views between those who wanted school-based therapists and those who favoured a community-based model, and that the scheme was an attempt to bridge that gap.

A guessing game had ensued following an announcement by the department that a small number of schools in Cork and Dublin had been included in the pilot scheme to reinstate therapists in special schools.

This comes following their eventual complete withdrawal in early 2020, coinciding but not necessarily linked with the outbreak of the covid pandemic.

There had been a process of withdrawing therapists, as the community-based model has been favoured since around 2013.

While there are 11 special schools in Cork, St Killian’s Special School on the northside had, along with others, prepared a pilot scheme which was put forward by the Child Disability Network Team under the auspices of Cork Kerry Community Healthcare in early June.

Mr Martin told The Echo that he “strongly favoured” school-based therapy services and said he pushed for this to be implemented for “quite some time”.

“Others have different views, others want to pursue the Progressing Disability model [a model where therapists operate in the community rather than being attached to specific schools] which was developed over a decade ago,” Mr Martin said. “I don’t believe that has been a successful model.

“There have been different views on this, and the pilot scheme has been an attempt to bridge those two views and to learn lessons and evaluate therapists in schools. Six schools have been selected, four in Cork and two in Dublin, with a view to expanding the number of schools within this school year if possible. I have asked the minister for education to specifically look at some schools to add to the six, including St Killian’s.”

Cork North Central Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan said, when contacted, that he and others “were all advocating strongly for St Killian’s — we want to see all the special schools in Cork have their therapists reinstated”.

Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said: “We want St Killian’s, as well as other special schools, to be able to have therapists back this September. This is a scandal; children with disabilities are being treated like second-class citizens.”