Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 February 2024
97. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth with anecdotal evidence of a 60% vacancy rate in Cavan children's disability network team, CDNT, if he will give a update on the vacancy rate within both Cavan and Monaghan CDNTs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9735/24]
View answerI ask the Minister of State about anecdotal evidence of a 60% vacancy rate in Cavan's CDNT. Will she give an update on the vacancy rate both within Cavan and Monaghan CDNTs? I did not make reference to this in the previous question because I did not expect to reach this question today.
The Government acknowledges challenges faced by children and young people with disabilities and their families accessing essential therapy services in Cavan and Monaghan. The staff vacancy rate for Cavan, which is an Enable Ireland team, is currently 58% with a total of 11.96 whole-time equivalent staff in situ. The staff vacancy rate for Monaghan HSE is at 39%, with a total of 17.81 whole-time equivalent staff in situ. Currently, there are 570 children on the caseload in the CDNT in Cavan and 662 in the CDNT in Monaghan. Work is ongoing to bolster the CDNTs and enhance their staffing complement to provide suitable appointments for therapy services.
To achieve this, I am pleased to report a positive response to the recent CDNT recruitment campaign, Be part of our team, be part of their lives, which received more than 500 applications and the HSE national and local HR is now progressing to the next stage of the selection process with appointments expected in the coming weeks. They have examined what areas of the country people had chosen to be in. They have been sent out to the CHOs the same way they have also been sent to Enable Ireland. I have to meet with Enable Ireland representatives in the coming days to see if it is working at the same pace as the HSE to start interviews and identify the sites where successful candidates can be put and how quickly this can be done.
The HSE is also driving a number of initiatives to provide supports so urgently needed for wait-listed children. The HSE launched the children's disability service grant, which has an aim of strengthening services for children with a disability currently waiting on CDNT service and that is due to be launched in the next two or three days. We are very close to having that finalised. The fund calls for applications for disability service providers and community groups that can provide additional innovative services such as recognised sensory programmes, evidence-based therapies, respite services, clubs, evening and weekend sessions and additional therapy sessions for services users such as managing challenging behaviours.
Just this week, I became aware that the manager in the Cavan CDNT is on maternity leave. Is she going to be replaced? The lady who is currently covering the position is based in Navan but that may just be temporary. We really need a full-time manager in the service.
A parent was in contact with me yesterday - and she is not alone in this situation - who was equally angry and upset and really at her wits' end. She has three children with additional needs but one of them was referred to the CDNT by CAMHS. Her son was sent there for an assessment for ADHD and he was referred back to the team in 2020. She visited the CDNT, got in touch with the staff in July 2022 to find her son was not on their list. She went back to CAMHS, got the referral letter, brought it back, hand-delivered it to the CDNT and thought he should then be on the list. She went in this week and he is still not on the list. She is really angry because she has lost four years of him being on a list where he should have been receiving some sort of support and services. She is not the only one who fell between cracks when the new progressing disability services programme was set up. Some children were referred to primary care, others to the CDNT, but many feel between the two.
The Deputy has hit a nerve with me on that particular case because it clearly indicates that the national access plan, NAP, which is the HSE's own policy, is not working. If the NAP was working, it would mean when the letter had come back, that child would be automatically added and the parent would not have to go back twice and for their child not to be on the list. NAP is where there are primary care, disability, and mental health services there is an integrated approach. It a communication tool between primary care, disabilities, and mental health in order that the clinicians are communicating amongst themselves to ensure the child is at the centre and getting the service he or she needs. The child should be appropriately placed on the team where the services would meet his or her needs. When the referral letter returns back to the CDNT, I wonder what decisions they are making and on what their decision is based. Is it the fact that it was a CAMHS referral initially and for whatever reason, it was not sent it back?
There is a real lack of understanding and communication in the role of that clinician.
The child was referred to CAMHS for an ADHD assessment but CAMHS said the child is autistic and would need the services of the CDNT. There was more to the story beforehand but I will not go back on it again. I have other parents waiting for services.
Another parent who was waiting for services and who has not received any is trying to put together enough funding to get a private assessment done for her child because she just feels she has to do this. To do that she needs some sort of form or referral from the CDNT and the staff on the team said they cannot give it because they has not seen the child. The parent is really caught in a situation where she cannot access private support without some sort of assessment from the CDNT but the CDNT will not give that because they have not seen the child. If the CDNT had been seeing the child and the child was in their services, the parent would not need to go and access an assessment privately.
I was told that a family forum that was held recently was very poorly attended and that they seem to be getting more disillusioned. It ended up that they said that the issue with the team in Cavan is that nobody wants to work in Cavan. That is not true.
It is important for me to recognise the staffing deficits in Cavan and Monaghan. Not only do I recognise it but so does the HSE. Hence, when the children's disability service grant is launched, I hope the Deputy will see an uplift in support for the families and the children. The recruitment is taking place as we speak. When I met the leads and the heads of the HSE only last Tuesday I asked when I should expect that staff would be in place. Staff should be in place mid-April, or the start of May at the latest. That is why I am anxious to meet Enable Ireland to ensure I get exactly the same answers. Some 500 staff applications is a sizeable segment when one considers that the campaign was run only over a four-week period.
I have also set up an interdepartmental, interstate, high-level ministerial group, which I chair myself, to see how we can continue the workforce planning and to ensure that we can meet not just clinicians but the wider workforce that is required to enable our CDNTs to function.
