*Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley (FF). Photograph: Natasha Barton
MINISTER FOR Children, Disability and Equality, Norma Foley (FF) has admitted the system for managing the assessment of needs for children is broken.
On Thursday, Minister Foley officially opened Hazeldene Residential Respite Service in Barefield for children and young people with disabilities.
Between January and June of this year, the HSE assessed nineteen children from Clare on its assessment of need programme which was eleven percent of all cases in the county. An assessment of need is an evaluation carried out by the HSE for children or young people with a disability.
“In terms of assessment of needs I’ve already outlined I have always felt and I am a number of months into this job but I’ve always felt the assessment of needs process isn’t working and is not fit for purpose, we need to find a better model,” Minister Foley told The Clare Echo.
She added, “I will be the first to say, disability is coming from a low-base in this country, there is so much work that needs to be done, here in respite we are delivering a very positive story but more needs to be done specifically in the area of assessment for needs, I have said from the beginning I believe the system which delivers the assessment of needs is a broken one, this Government is committed to doing it differently, work is underway to introduce legislation that will still ensure that a family or a person has the right to go through the assessment of need system but the focus will be on the need of the individual”.
Once through the system, almost a third of children are found to not have a need, the Minister flagged. “We have found that those who do go through the assessment of need process, at the end of it more than thirty percent of them are told they do not have a disability, thirty percent, they do have a need, the focus must be on identifying that need earlier and putting in place the therapies required”.
A new policy will introduce “a single front door point of access which will mean that once a child goes into the system, they stay in the system and they are not put on a 100 different waiting lists for different treatments, there will be one access point, there is also an autism protocol that has been introduced by the HSE because we have found in the last number of months, 45 percent of those who go through the assessment of need is to actually receive an autism diagnosis, there will be a separate pathway for that, there is a number of fixes that need to be put in place,” the Minister advised.
Nationally, 10,714 children were waiting for first contact from Child Disability Network Teams (CDNT) by the end of July. Of those children, 6,957 are waiting over twelve months for first contact.
Improving this figures cannot be done overnight, Minister Foley stressed. “That is not something you can do by magic, it does require a change in legislation, we are saying that will be presented to the Dáil before the end of this term which is quite significant that I have done it in such a short space of time and it has involved engagement with the Atorney General. It is more than just doing the legislation, it is working with the HSE and that they bring in new models of practice so for example this single point of contact and no wrong door, that will be transformative so when a family engages with the HSE, they won’t be put on five or twenty different waiting lists, their child will be on one list and they will be directed by one individual as to where they need to go for the therapies they require. We identify that there are challenges in terms of availability of staff, I can point to the disability network teams we have in areas and we have had challenges in staffing there although we have seen a significant increase in the level of staffing but we need more and more”.
An insufficient amount of people trained to take up positions as occupational therapists and speech and language therapists is prevalent, she cautioned. “In the short-term we are also looking at models like apprenticeships so that people will feel they can earn and learn at the same time, we’re looking at so many different things which need to be improved. Absolutely disability is coming from a low base, it is getting a priority now right from the top with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, that unit sits in his Department and never before did it sit in the Department of An Taoiseach and never did before did we really have such an active Cabinet sub-committee on disability where there is accountability”.
When asked what she could say to children and their parents left on waiting lists, Minister Foley stated, “I’m saying we’re putting the work in now so in the coming months you will see a difference. I know there are families and children awaiting respite places, I have announced here that there are 700 nights available here in Hazeline, in 2026 there will be 1400 nights available here, that is progress, is it enough? Absolutely not. Is there more to be done? Without doubt. I am determined we will do it, I will showcase this to you as an example of the determination we have to do more and more to deliver more and more for those that need it most, particularly those with a disability”.
