Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) was introduced in 2016 to ensure that children with additional needs or a disability could access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme.

In line with a commitment in First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028, an independent evaluation of AIM was undertaken in order to inform an extension of AIM beyond the ECCE programme as well as any potential enhancements to the model.

The findings from the evaluation were published in January 2024 and have informed the phased extension of AIM, commencing from this September with the extension of targeted AIM supports to ECCE-age children beyond time they spend in the ECCE programme – both in term and out. This will allow children to access early learning and childcare for up to an additional 3 hours in term and 6 hours out of term.

It is the ambition that, over time, all children with additional needs registered in early learning and childcare services will benefit from supports under AIM. To this end, officials are giving consideration to how younger children not yet eligible for the ECCE programme, can be supported through AIM, in addition to school going children in school-age childcare services.

As with the current AIM-eligible cohort, supports would be open to all children based on an individual needs basis. The supports required based on the differing needs of children in 0-3 cohort will differ from those in the ECCE-aged cohort. As the AIM policy and associated supports for 0-3 year olds has not been designed it would not be possible to assess who might avail of such supports.

For ECCE aged children approximately 6.8% of ECCE children avail of targeted AIM supports. Approximately three quarters of children in ECCE benefit from universal AIM supports.