Ms Angela O'Neill:

The 90-minute engagement is subject to the Fórsa engagement and my instinct is that the outcome of that will be that we will have a wide range of times. We will not be taking the 47 hours referred to because we will not be able to meet our statutory obligations if all our assessments take that length of time. It is key that even if an ASD assessment takes 47 hours those hours are often more appropriately spread over a much longer period than the three-month period for which the Disability Act 2005 allows. For some children, a period of diagnostic intervention before finalising a diagnosis of ASD would be more appropriate but the Disability Act 2005 requires us to provide an assessment of a child within a particular timeframe. In order to meet the requirements of the Disability Act 2005, therefore, we need to separate that from the needs of a child and family to have a diagnosis and appropriate intervention services. The Deputy is absolutely correct it is not acceptable that children should wait two or three years. In some areas resources are being used almost exclusively for assessment and children get their diagnosis and no intervention.

We are trying to balance the need to do a comprehensive assessment with the need to provide intervention for children. We need to fine-tune our assessments a little better so that not all of the resources are spent doing the assessments. When a family is told that a certain diagnosis has been agreed on, it should not be told to go off because nothing can be provided for it.