Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 February 2022
81. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Health the steps he is taking to address the waiting lists of the children’s disability network teams in County Cork for access to assessments and therapies. [7931/22]
View answerThe implementation of the Progressing Disability Services for Children & Young People (PDS) programme is agreed Government and HSE policy. This policy supports the reconfiguration of children’s disability services to provide equitable, child and family centred services based on need rather than diagnosis. The PDS programme will ensure that services are provided for children with complex needs regardless of where they live or where they go to school and to facilitate this Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) have been established to provide services and supports for all children with complex needs with all 91 CDNTs established by December 2021.
As part of the HSE National Service Plan 2021, a total of 100 development posts were allocated for PDS and its implementation, from which Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare were allocated 7.5 additional posts. A further additional 5.8 posts were allocated under the Special School allocation.
At the end of December 2021, 6 additional posts from a total of 13.3 had been filled and HSE advise that efforts are ongoing to fill the remaining positions. Further additional posts for all CDNTs will also be announced as part of the HSE’s National Service Plan for 2022 to provide additional supports and therapy services for children throughout the country.
It is acknowledged that there are a number of vacancies in Network Teams in the Cork area, primarily due to difficulty with recruitment. This difficulty is being experienced in the majority of teams across the country. HSE Disability Services advise the backfilling of posts is challenging in the current environment due to lack of availability of appropriately qualified staff and demand for same across the health service. However, the Lead Agencies responsible for the management of the teams are prioritising the recruitment of such posts.
While efforts continue to ensure posts are filled as quickly as possible, the HSE advise that Network Teams in Cork operate according to a suite of national and regional standard operating policies, procedures and guidelines. There are prioritisation systems and caseload management systems (including assessment and intervention pathways) in place. This means that in practice children with the highest priority of need will have access to services in the first instance, while children with a lower priority of need are placed on the appropriate waitlists.
I wish to assure the Deputy that the caseload management systems are reviewed and updated regularly by the Network Team Managers and Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Disability Services have put in place additional waitlist initiatives with external agencies to support caseload management, using time related savings, including preliminary team assessments under the Assessment of Need process.
