Vol. 1055 No. 6
31. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for an update on the CDNT recruitment campaign, ‘Be part of our team, be part of their lives’; the number of people who have been recruited to the CDNTs through this recruitment campaign; the current number of staff vacancies nationally in CDNTs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26214/24]
I wish to ask for an update on the children's disability network team, CDNT, recruitment campaign, Be part of our team, Be part of our lives. How many people have been recruited to the CDNTs through this campaign? What is the current number of staff vacancies nationally in CDNTs? Will the Minister of State will make a statement on this matter?
I thank Deputy Tully for raising this question. It will be the second time today I address her, after being in committee earlier.
The CDNT recruitment campaign, Be part of our team, Be part of their lives, has closed across CHOs. To date, 190 job offers have been made and 55 individuals are currently in the final stages of recruitment. Funding has been provided in recent years for additional posts to enhance the capacity of CDNTs and to shorten the waiting times. The funding amounts to a total of 800 whole-time equivalent posts, including an additional 175 therapy assistant posts which were approved in budget 2024. However, as we all know from the 2022 staff census, there are more than 700 vacant whole-time equivalent posts in our CDNTs. It did not change much in the 2023 staff census, either.
The HSE has been asked to conduct another CDNT recruitment campaign in the coming months which will ensure there is continued recruitment to the CDNTs, which in turn will hopefully strengthen the CDNTs' provision of services. It will be important that the HSE identifies and applies any points of learning from the first campaign. The HSE is operating in a very competitive global market for healthcare talent as there are significant shortages of qualified healthcare professionals across the globe. The HSE community operations disability services are working collaboratively with the CDNT lead agencies at CHO level to promote CDNTs as a workplace of choice in a competitive employment market.
Some 93 CDNTs are aligned with 96 community healthcare networks, CHNs, across the country and are providing services and supports for children from birth to 18 years of age. The CDNTs are currently providing services and supports for 46,000 children. However, there are significant challenges for CDNTs including staff vacancies, the growth in the numbers and the demand for assessments of need. I can come back in on the second point.
The Minister of State mentioned the staff census of 2022. The 2023 staff census has yet to be published. Does the Minister of State have a date for when it will be published? I know it was delayed because of the industrial action but I wonder is there a date for that in order to be able to compare across the board.
I wish to focus on my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. The HSE-run team in Monaghan had a vacancy rate of approximately 40%. The Cavan team, which is a section 39 organisation, had a 60% vacancy rate. The Minister of State indicated to me before that in this recruitment campaign there were approximately 80 applicants in the CHO 1 area. Does she have figures of how many of those people have actually been offered positions within that area or specifically within the Cavan and Monaghan area?
How long is the recruitment taking? I know that sometimes there are significant delays with CORU. Have those delays been addressed? Time is of the essence. We are all hearing from families who are looking for services and not getting them at the moment. Recruitment needs to be beefed up as quickly as possible.
The date for the publication of the 2023 staff census will be in the next two weeks. While I do not have a specific figure for Cavan and Monaghan, I know that for CHO 1, which covers the Cavan and Monaghan areas, there were 88 people who expressed interest.
As to what measures are being taken, the national team development of the programme is holding lunchtime webinars. There are confined senior-grade competitions going on. It is marketing the CDNT as a workplace of choice. There are human resources engagements with graduates, in person and via webinars, as well as recordings of CDNT staff and parents around the benefits of working with it. There are also student sponsorship programmes, an additional 20 senior clinical psychologist training placements, confined senior-grade competitions and a recruitment plan for 462 health and social care workers by the end of 2024. The HSE has set its own target it wishes to achieve in the health and social care profession, which is 462 this year.
The Minister of State mentioned graduates. Have the numbers entering these professions in college increased and have they increased dramatically? Are we seeing an increase in the number of people graduating and staying in Ireland to work?
The Minister of State mentioned the apprenticeship model, which is an excellent model as well. Are we seeing a lot more people taking up these courses or is it proving difficult to get people into them? Some people have said that the points' requirement can be extremely high. Many people would be interesting in doing courses in the likes of occupational therapy but the points requirement in the leaving certificate is too high.
Every week I deal with families who are being really messed around. Families have been referred from primary care to the CDNT and then on to CAMHS. They do not know where they are going. Even the ones who are with the CDNT are not getting services. I am constantly sending emails but I do not even get responses anymore. One mother who got in contact with me has a child with epilepsy so it is not like she requires an assessment of need. She needs supports because she is starting school and the school needs to know what it has to do. The mother cannot get a reply from the CDNT.
Regarding the right front door, it is called the national access policy, NAP. This is a HSE policy document. Under the leadership of Bernard Gloster I have seen huge improvements in communication between primary healthcare, CAMHS, acute services and disability services. They are talking to one other and not working in silos. Granted, there are variances across the country. Some are working really well and others could do with improvement. That policy is being rolled out. It is totally understood at a senior level and it is filtering all the way down.
Regarding recruitment and attraction, I agree. I spoke earlier today about the excellent programme in social care that was launched in Cork in the past month with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. We have seen some 30 students take places on the apprenticeship programme. I would really like to see that stepped up now to occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy. Students can earn and learn as part of a pathway through education that also provides the proper clinical governance. It is a way of attracting and retaining people.
32. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on attempts to re-establish childcare and early learning facilities at a location in Churchfield, Cork (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26300/24]
I ask the Minister to provide an update on attempts to re-establish childcare and early learning facilities at the site of the old Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield in Cork city.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. From his engagement and that of other Deputies from Cork I am well aware of the issues facing Northside Community Enterprise and of the funding that is required to support the reopening of the Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield. The centre is in an area of undersupply and of high need for childcare places. The ambition of Northside Community Enterprise to reopen this centre, with an expanded offering of full-time, full-year places for children under three, as well as places for school-going children, is very welcome.
I had the opportunity to meet representatives of Northside Community Enterprise a number of weeks ago while in Cork visiting one of its other services. I was able to clarify that the capital funding I announced earlier in the year for the childcare sector under the national development plan was designed towards the expansion of existing services and that particular funding stream did not apply to the scenario that Northside Community Enterprise finds itself in with the Before 5 Family Centre. However, I was able to confirm to the representatives of Northside Community Enterprise that I and my Department are looking to see what solutions can be put in place in this situation. We see how vital this community facility is for Churchfield. Work is ongoing between officials in my Department and Pobal to find a solution.
Pobal, the scheme administrator, and the local childcare committee have engaged with Northside Community Enterprise and offered support in this regard. There was an initial meeting on 17 May and there has subsequently been a follow-up meeting. I do not have the conclusive answer for the Deputy but we are aware of the importance of this service. We are aware of the significance of Northside Community Enterprise stepping in to take it on and we are looking to bring forward a workable solution.
When the Before 5 Family Centre was closed suddenly last August, the community lost a facility it had enjoyed for 50 years. It lost a pre-school, an after-school service, childcare provision, play therapy and adult services. More than 100 parents lost out directly. More than 150 children lost out directly and 14 workers lost out directly. There are three other childcare providers in the area and all of them have lengthy waiting lists. There are 303 children in the Churchfield area aged four years and under. This community is crying out for the restart of these services.
I listened with care to the Minister's reply. It is a carbon copy of what the people in that community were told in the middle of March, at the time of the Minister's visit to Cork. I hoped for an update that showed some degree of progress in the past five weeks. Perhaps in his reply the Minister might be able to give a bit more detail on any progress since the last report that was given. This is moving at a snail's pace.
I do not accept the Deputy's assertion that it is moving at a snail's pace. We are looking to create a new funding stream that will deal with situations like this where there is an existing service that is using a building that is no longer fit for purpose and requires significant capital support. That requires my Department to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform to create a new capital stream. As with so much in the bureaucracy of Departments, I wish this would move so much faster. It does not always move as fast as we would like but significant work is being done. We recognise the importance of this particular service and that it is an area of undersupply. We also recognise that a very significant number of parents and young children benefited from this service previously. We want to continue to provide that support to the community.
I suggest that the Minister ask the parents in the area whether they think things are moving at a snail's pace or not. I do not think the Minister would be too surprised by the reply he would get. The delays in this case are unforgivable. The family centre was shut last year at the end of August. That should have been the signal for urgency in organising a replacement. On 6 February, the company appointed to organise replacement services - not Northside Community Enterprise - wrote to the Minister and other Ministers outlining the need for €366,000 in fresh funding to do necessary works in advance of a reopening. Last month, three months after that, on 13 May the Minister told the Irish Examiner that he was hard at work trying to source alternative funds. Now, we are five weeks on from that and there does not appear to be anything new here. Northside Community Enterprise reckons that there is somewhere between two and four months' work to be done in that building. The chance of it reopening for September is gone but we want to see something happening there in a serious way this year. I will be coming back to the Minister on this before the summer recess. It is disappointing and it is happening at a snail's pace.
When I was in Cork I sought the meeting with Northside Community Enterprise in order to be able to discuss the need for particular support to get this service reopened. I was able to see the amazing work it has done in other services and understand the particular ethos behind the organisation as a community organisation. This is something we in the Department want to support. I outlined the challenges we faced in terms of creating a brand new stream of funding to meet the organisation's particular needs. I also made it clear that it is something that my Department is willing to do because of the importance of this service and the need to support services like it. We will continue to work on it and look to put in place the necessary new funding stream. I will keep Deputy Barry and the other Deputies from Cork who have been in touch with me about this issue fully abreast of what we are doing.
33. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to detail what current communications plan is in place in respect of the IPAS accommodation crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26299/24]
I ask the Minister to give detail on the current communications plan when it comes to engaging with public representatives and members of the community about the provision of IPAS accommodation. Communication has been lacking and this has caused a lot of concern and anger in communities. What is the current communications plan for the provision of IPAS accommodation?
Ireland and many other European countries continue to experience a significant increase in people seeking international protection. The arrival numbers remain significantly elevated. In the first 23 weeks of 2024, more than 9,000 people arrived in Ireland seeking accommodation from the State, an average of 394 people per week.
This is more than five times the average for the period 2017 to 2019. Government is working to ensure an integrated approach to communications and community engagement and to deepen the understanding of all aspects of migration in the Irish context. Communicating with local communities and the public at large requires a series of multifaceted approaches. I understand a national communications plan is being developed and led by the Department of an Taoiseach. My Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has responsibility for community engagement. As the Deputy will be aware, a community engagement team has been established to engage directly with elected representatives, relevant local authorities, local development companies, and other entities and individuals. The purpose of the team is to improve the flow of information regarding arrivals into areas and to help equip local communities with the accurate information required to help them understand the current situation and to assist with the welcome and integration process for new arrivals. This team has been operating since October 2023. It consists of a national lead on civic engagement, two additional team members to support the on-the-ground engagement and a small administrative team.
The CET is activated for openings which need additional support. The openings which the team support can also be selected if requested by a public representative or a local community leader and when it is deemed appropriate. It is acknowledged that different sites will have different requirements, and this approach, while offering a standard process for engagement and communication, can be adapted depending on specific circumstances. To date, the CET has issued 79 detailed briefing notes to stakeholders and has actively engaged on 52 open or proposed accommodation centres. The work of the CET is supported by a whole-of-government approach, engaging with sectors and providers nationally and locally to respond to some of issues raised by local communities.
I thank the Minister of State. That does not really answer the question. It probably raises more questions and concerns about a comprehensive communication plan which he seems to bat over to the Department of the Taoiseach. The need for a proper and comprehensive communication plan is something I have raised consistently. This is something we were told was being worked on 12 months ago. It was supposed to have been brought before Cabinet back in February and we are now being told by the Minister of State that this is still being worked on by the Department of the Taoiseach. We need clarity here. There is a communication plan or there is not. As I see it, there is no communication plan. There is no plan full stop. However, the critical part is engaging with communities and that has failed dismally. Public representatives have been lied to regarding the provision of IPAS accommodation and have been given half-truths, mistruths and total untruths. Communities feel abandoned by the lack of communication. It is one thing coming in retrospectively to tell them what is happening in their community, but that engagement needs to start from day one and that is seriously lacking.
Go raibh maith agat, a Theachta.
Is there a plan, at the Department of the Taoiseach level or at any level?
I want to push back on the Deputy's assertion that people are being lied to or are being told mistruths and untruths. It is very problematic and, frankly, it feeds the people who are spreading lies. What the Deputy said is simply not true.
It is true.
It is not.
When we have information that is available to share, we share it. These are fluid circumstances. Sometimes circumstances change regarding capacity, in what the provider is able to do and as to what we are able to tell people. There are fluid circumstances. We have unaccommodated people. We are trying to move as quickly as we can. The problem with that is when we give people information as soon as we can, the process can change. As we are telling people information early, the situation very often changes. If we were to wait until everything was lined up, perfect and done, it would be weeks into the process and we would be accused of not telling people early enough. The fact is, we are telling people early and the reason people are not getting everything they want is because it is at an early stage. We can only tell people a certain amount when the process has started.
The lack of a comprehensive communication plan is fanning the flames of hate and resentment being led by right-wing people exploiting the vacuum that the Minister of State and the Government have created because it is not putting out the accurate information. We see an analysis was carried out by Sky News on foot of a recent protest. A total of 56% of the online content originated in the US, 20% in Ireland and 10% in Britain. There was no strategy there from the Department and the Government to counter that. Public representatives such as me are being lied to and have been lied to by the Department regarding the provision of accommodation where bulldozers were on the site in my constituency stripping back topsoil and putting down hardcore and members of the community and I were being told no decision had been taken on that specific site. I have a role. I want to play a role in bringing communities with us, but when that information is not there and there is no comprehensive communication strategy with communities or public representatives, it makes my job very difficult if not impossible-----
Thank you, Deputy. Time is up.
-----and that is a failure of this Government and that of the Minister.
I again refute the word "lie". The Deputy was not lied to. What happens is, because these situations are fluid and because we move early, that information can change. What little bit of knowledge I have of the situation to which he refers, information changed and was not communicated in a way it should have been. That is very different from being lied to. Members of the CET are trying their best. When they get information, they communicate it out as best they can, but as I said, situations change very often. I totally respect that the Deputies have a job to do as well and I thank them and councillors for showing leadership at a local level in bringing the community along. We do our best to get information out as quickly as possible. The core issue remains in that we have to move fast, and in those fast-moving situations, the facts can change regularly.
Is there a communication plan at any level?
Please, Deputy.
I can only talk about the community engagement team and how it is working. It is working very well because there are lots of places opening and there is not an issue because the information is getting out. It has not worked perfectly everywhere but we are learning as we go along and it is improving.
