Ms Angela O'Neill:

To address Deputy Donnelly's query, the current position is that stage 1 of the assessment of need process allows for three months to do a desktop assessment of the referral. The application is submitted by the family and the assessment officer gathers additional information through a standard additional information form, under the new standard operational procedure, which is tailored to tie up with the national access policy and tailored according to the child's age. The pre-existing one is general for all age groups. The family complete that form, any available reports are submitted and the assessment officer determines whether the child needs further assessment. In most parts of the country, that stage 1 desktop assessment is being done within the three-month timeframe. In some of the Dublin areas and in one area in the south east, that desktop assessment is delayed. Once it is done, stage 2 of the process kicks in. There is a further three-month period allowed for stage 2, which is the clinical assessment. The date on which the assessment officer refers a child to an assessment service - be it an ASD service, a speech and language therapist, a hearing test or some another service - stage 2 of the process starts. There is a further three months allowed to complete that stage, which includes completing a clinical assessment and an assessment of need report. Shortly before the end of three-month period, the clinician will send a report back to assessment officer and he or she will complete an assessment of need summary report, the final report. That is then sent to a liaison officer. Therefore, the report is completed and it goes to a liaison officer who has a further month to engage with the services to prepare the child's service statement.

In developing a child's assessment of need report, I, as a clinician, would state that the child presents with X and he needs Y. When I declare the services he needs in the assessment report, that should have no regard to resources. I would list any of the services he needs regardless of whether we can provide them. In the service statement, I would have to say that he needs X and he will get it by such and such a date and that he also needs Y but, unfortunately, we cannot deliver that. The service statement sets out what we will provide and when we will provide it. There is a month allowed for completing that process. When that service statement is completed both the service statement and the assessment of need report are sent simultaneously to the parents.