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Disabilities Assessments

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 October 2019

Thursday, 10 October 2019

Questions (13)

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

13. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Health the way in which he plans to speed up access to assessment of needs for children to bring it in line with the statutory requirements to ensure the waiting list is no longer than three months and is completed in six months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41366/19]

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Written answers

The Disability Act 2005 provides for an Assessment of Need for people with disabilities. Any child thought to have a disability, born on, or after June 1st, 2002 is eligible to apply for an 'Assessment of Need' that will detail his or her health needs arising from a disability.  Since its commencement in 2007, there have been significant year on year increases in the number of children applying both for an 'Assessment of Need' and for disability services generally. Regrettably, these increases have led to the extended waiting periods currently being experienced by children and their families.

In order to improve the 'Assessment of Need' process and ensure that children receive an intervention as soon as possible, the HSE has developed a new Standard Operating Procedure for the Assessment of Need process. This measure will ensure children with disabilities and their families, access appropriate assessment and intervention as soon as possible, while at the same time bringing consistency to the Assessment of Need process in each Community Healthcare Organization of the HSE.

The HSE  is currently concluding a lengthy consultation and Industrial Relations engagement regarding the implementation of this procedure which it hopes to have in place by the first quarter of 2020. In addition, HSE Disability Services is currently engaged in a major reconfiguration of its existing therapy resources for children with disabilities into multi-disciplinary geographically based teams, as part of its National Programme on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18 years).

The key objective of this Programme is to bring about equity of access to disability services and consistency of service delivery, with a clear pathway for children with disabilities and their families to services, regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of the individual child’s difficulties.  Evidence to date from areas where this has been rolled out shows that implementation of this programme will also have a positive impact on waiting lists both for Assessments of Need and therapy provision.

Recently, an increase in therapy posts was identified as a priority requirement to meet current unmet need and projected future needs in children's disability services nationally. In that regard, last year's Budget provided for the recruitment of an additional 100 therapy posts to help reduce the long waiting times for assessment as well as supporting interventions for children who need them. The recruitment process for these posts is well underway and a number of posts have been filled. This welcome new resource will result in additional new therapy posts ranging from Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Social Workers and Psychologists.

I am conscious that timely access to assessments and therapies is imperative in a child’s development and I fully understand how delays in accessing the service are a source of great concern for both children and their families and while not addressing all needs, I am confident the initiatives I have outlined will have a significant positive impact in reducing waiting times for Assessment of Need over the course of the next year.

Question No. 14 answered orally.
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