Meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children
Opening Statement
Ms. Mary Lacey Crowe, Clinical Nurse Manager, Sacred Heart Centre,
Lady Lane, Waterford
The purpose of my being here today is to highlight the importance of children with
disabilities being specifically included in future childcare policy development in relation to
the Development of Quality & Affordable Childcare and I am speaking from my own
personal perspective.
While we at the Sacred Heart Centre are mostly considered a Centre of Excellence we need to
be continuously mindful of our limitations and be ever cognisant of the child. A child is first
and foremost a child, not a disability and for this reason I personally prefer to use the phrase
‘child with additional needs’.
With continued advances in research, training and education and policy development it is
widely accepted that the child with additional needs is best facilitated in an inclusive setting.
Segregation or isolation of children with additional needs is restrictive, discriminatory and is
a barrier to social inclusion
Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) it clearly assigns
responsibility to Government for ‘rendering appropriate assistance to parents’ and ‘ensuring
that children of working parents have the right to benefit from child care services and
facilities’. While the CRC was the first international human rights treaty to clearly include
disability, the 2006 UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) has given us a new
understanding of disability and what is needed to ensure that the rights of the child with
disability are being realized in progressive ways (Coalition for the Rights of Children, 2011).
We can deduce from this that a child with additional needs has the same right as all children
to be included in the same early childhood education setting and should not be deprived of
this opportunity.
However, this is not the reality of the situation or my experience to date. The permanent
exclusion of children from their local mainstream early childhood setting is extremely
difficult and heart breaking for families and should not be happening in 2015. Quality
childhood care and education provides a vital opportunity for children with additional needs
to be integrated into their local communities with their peer groups and avoids alienation of
the child/family.
On reviewing past referrals to our service particularly the Toddler/Playgroup Services we
frequently see that children with additional needs cannot be catered for in a Main Stream
setting for a number of reasons.
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Sacred Heart Centre, HSE South, Lady Lane, Waterford
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Resource challenges.
Non engagement of parents.
Need for further training engagement between HSE and Service Providers.
Challenging/disruptive behaviours.
Continence issues.
Health & Safety concerns.
Reputation.
Fear.
Tolerance.
When it comes to future planning for the individual child we have had to be creative to
ensure that the child is afforded the opportunity of inclusion. While individual Childcare
providers have excelled at inclusion the whole system needs to be standardised nationally.
From a local perspective I particularly need to acknowledge the investment by the Speech &
Language Therapy Department in providing continuous training to Childcare Providers to
assist with the inclusion process and to the Early Intervention Team for other initiatives
However, there is a long way to go and it is very difficult when there are so many
stakeholders involved and all with a different focus. It is vital that we retain a child centred
approach and that all changes that challenge us will be in the best interest of the child. The
lack of a coordinated structure that plans, funds and provides regulated childcare & education
makes full inclusion difficult and even sometimes impossible.
Going forward it is vital that Early Childhood Educators are trained within a framework that
assumes that children with additional needs will be in their Early Years Service and will not
need to be isolated from their peers in formative years.
References:
Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children (2011a) Right in principle, right in practice:
Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada
United Nations General Assembly (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities
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Sacred Heart Centre, HSE South, Lady Lane, Waterford