Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Health

To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the Health Service Executives’s Progressing Disability Service for Children and Young People programme in Dublin south; and when will the new Network Disability Teams be in operation; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

 

The HSE has recognised the need to increase the level of consistency and standardisation in the way services for children with disabilities, including those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), are delivered.  It is currently engaged in a reconfiguration of existing therapy resources to multidisciplinary geographic based teams for children as part of the National Programme on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18 years).

 

The aim of the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme is to achieve a national, unified approach to delivering disability health services so that there is a clear pathway to services for all children, regardless of where they live, what school they go to or the nature of their disability.  An additional €4m has been specifically allocated in 2014 to drive implementation of the Programme.  This equates to approximately 80 therapy posts.  

 

Almost 60 geographic-based multi-disciplinary teams have been established to date under the Programme as part of the reconfigured service model.  It is hoped that a further 30 teams will be reconfigured this year, bringing the overall total to approximately 90 teams by the end of 2014.  These figures reflect all children’s disability teams that provide early intervention and school age services to children aged up to eighteen years.  The transition to this new model is taking place on a phased basis and, importantly, includes consultation and engagement with stakeholders, such as service users and their families.  

 

Within this context I have asked the HSE to respond to the Deputy on the re-configuration of children’s disability services in South Dublin and on the detailed operational data that she has sought.