The provision of health related services, including speech and language therapy, to people with physical and/or sensory disabilities is a matter for the ERHA and the health boards.
All health boards are experiencing difficulties in the recruitment of therapy posts and particularly in filling senior vacancies.
My Department commissioned a report on current and future supply and demand in the labour market for certain professional therapists from Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates. The report, which was published in July 2001, concluded that a major expansion is essential in the number of speech and language therapists requiring a very significant increase in training places to meet the long-term needs of the health service.
To advance this core recommendation of the report an interagency working group, comprising officials from my Department, the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority, was established to seek proposals from third level institutions to ensure the rapid provision of the additional therapy training places. On 29 May 2002 the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Michael Woods, announced the provision of 175 extra professional therapy training places for students to tackle the acute shortage of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists in the health service. This initiative almost doubles the number of therapy places available at present. It is expected that the first intake to fill the extra places for speech and language therapy will commence in the 2003-04 academic year.
Other key recommendations of the report include: provision of sufficient clinical placements within the health service through the establishment of a national network of clinical placement co-ordinators; need for fast-track qualification and review of the existing training system; concerted recruitment from overseas; establishment of the planned system of statutory registration consistent with the requirement for a patient centred health service; and career structure, workload, working practices and skills mix issues encompassed in the context of the report of the expert group on various health professions, published April 2000.