Specialist Therapists in Schools and Preschools

A notable step towards multidisciplinary teams in and around schools has been made by the recent government decision to provide school-site based and preschool site based speech and language therapists and occupational therapists. As a first step, 19 speech and language therapists and 12 Occupational Therapists will be recruited to work with 150 schools and pre-schools. €2.25m is being allocated to Phase One of the project in 2018. 

Two policy briefing papers of DCU's Educational Disadvantage Centre in 2016 specifically argued for such policy developments, both for speech and language therapists in schools and for occupational therapists.

The Conference Proceedings of the Joint INTO/Educational Disadvantage Centre DEIS Review Conference held in DCU December 2015 similarly emphasised the policy importance of such specialist multidisciplinary team services to be located in schools, to bridge the divide between health and education.

For further details of the new initiative see: