Disability Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 December 2023

Thursday, 14 December 2023

Ceisteanna (72)

Seán Canney

Ceist:

72. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he is aware of the lack of services available in children's disability network team, CDNT, 7 area due to the shortage of staff and specialists; to provide a schedule of the staff in place and a schedule of the staff levels required to run the level properly; when the full complement of staff will be in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54562/23]

Freagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)

Deputy Seán Canney

This relates to CDNT 7 in Tuam. At the moment, parents are protesting outside the office because services are not being provided and the people are not in place. I have received an enormous amount of emails from distressed parents because the services are just not there. There was a fanfare of opening the new building but it is empty. What will be done by the Government to get this rectified?

Deputy Anne Rabbitte

The CDNTs in community healthcare west provide support, care and therapy to children and their families across Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

I will first address the Deputy’s comment to the effect that it is an empty building. Currently, the list of staff includes: one children's disability network manager, CDNM; one grade 5 administrator; two grade 3 clerical officers; 2.3 senior occupational therapists, OTs; one staff-grade OT; one OT assistant; one physio assistant; 2.8 senior physios; one staff-grade physio; 1.8 senior social workers; 0.4 behavioural support therapists; 3.5 senior speech and language therapists, SLTs; 1.9 senior psychologists; and 0.8 preschool liaisons. To me, that is not an empty building. That is the list of staff currently working there. When the Deputy and I attended the opening of that building, the staff shortfall was 38%. It is now down to 28%. It is good to know that in the last couple of weeks, we have managed to recruit a physio assistant and a social worker who started on the team recently. Next week the psychologist will be starting and in the first week in January we will have a senior speech and language therapist which will bring down the deficit to 28%. I accept that is still a long way to go from a full team.

What will make a team complete is the question I am addressing. The team is currently short two staff-grade SLTs, one assistant SLT, three senior OTs, one senior dietician, one behavioural support specialist, a 0.5 of a clinical nurse manager grade 2 and one staff-grade psychologist. I will explain the panels in my next contribution.

Deputy Seán Canney

While I accept the Minister of State’s figures, the reality on the ground is that if someone was to ring the dietician today to seek an appointment, which I did the other day, one would be told that the dietician is on maternity leave - as they are entitled - and will not be back until October 2024 and to contact the disability team. There is no dietician in place.

The forum for parents met recently. I think this is what escalated their concerns because they were given figures including a 54% gap when it comes to speech and language therapists. I have spoken to parents on a one-to-one basis. One family with two children with autism, for instance, was told they were getting a service but they have had no speech and language therapist for five years for one child. In the past year, they got an appointment for a speech and language therapist for the other. That lad is being classed as having a service but he needs a lot more services. There are no case workers. No one is leading these people through the mist in which they find themselves. One of the things they were advised to do was to follow other parents on Instagram to find out how to deal with this. Parents are telling me that is where we are at and that is why they are out protesting in Tuam this morning.

Deputy Anne Rabbitte

Both of us, being from the same constituency, have an acute awareness of what is happening this morning in Tuam. I do not find it acceptable in any way that any parent or anybody would be told to go to Instagram to find their solutions.

The family forums that are being set up are an opportunity for the HSE or the lead agency to work with and inform the parents and to break down the barrier, demystify it and ensure there is proper transparency around the staffing levels and what families can accept.

The Deputy asked who leads the team. There is a manager in charge of that entire team at the moment and three administrators assisting on the communication side. Only last week, thanks to the Minister and Bernard Gloster, I got approval to open an expression of interest panel for Donegal, Galway and Waterford. That means that wherever someone is in the country, regardless of where they sit on them, the panels are opened up.

If they would so wish to come and work in Galway, Donegal or Waterford the panels across all of the disciplines are open. Mr. Bernard Gloster and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, signed off on that last week.

Deputy Seán Canney

I will come back to the basic point. I understand about panels opening up. Parents on the ground do not. The children are not getting the services they require. In some cases they have been getting nothing for years. We all talk about early intervention as the secret to getting on top of disabilities, so to speak. It is not happening. The parents will tell you that. I am not blaming the Minister of State but I am blaming the system we have. Even on the day of the official opening, one of the HSE's people mentioned the number of staff they had there, to be shouted down by other staff within the HSE, saying that was not true and to divide that by two and it might be right. The figures the parents are being given, looking at them, show 40% to 50% vacancies. There is one manager and 740 families in the system. The parents told me it was admitted to them on the day at the forum meeting they had that the staff had the correct contact details for only 100 of those families. I do not blame the staff who are there. They are working under severe pressure. In fairness, that is why we cannot get staff because we do not have the backup for them in terms of administrative staff and all that goes with that. This is for the children. This is Christmas. Let us get it done.

Deputy Anne Rabbitte

I could not agree more with the Deputy. That is why we are getting it done and why we are using a trial basis in Galway, Waterford and Donegal to see if, by freeing up the panels, we can get those ten posts that are required in Tuam filled, along with all the other CDNTs. PDS has been rolled out for the past two years in Galway with a caseload of 700. I know the people on the ground are working so hard on it, but looking at the staffing levels and taking out administration and everything else, it could be said there is a staffing level of approximately 14. If we were to put 700 children over a 48-week period and work that out, that would be 14 children seen every single week. To be quite honest, the HSE, along with management, need to review their KPIs and look at how they are delivering services, how they are engaging and how exactly they are communicating. To hear they only have phone numbers for 100 children gives me serious cause for worry.