Professor Malcolm MacLachlan:

I thank Deputy Ward for his questions. I will start towards the end. I think there really would be a concern that the State was being complicit in providing poor treatment had we not introduced the standard operating procedure. As the Deputy is aware, there were lengthy waiting lists and they have dramatically reduced. I think that is a very important positive action that we have taken. The national clinical programme for people with disabilities has been set up specifically to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and to make it focus in particular on the needs of people with disabilities from an intervention perspective. Of course, we all appreciate that assessment is important, but it is done for a purpose. As Deputy Ward said, what people need is an intervention, even if it is only in the interim while they wait for a fuller assessment to take place. Assessment is not a one-off process. One does an assessment that indicates a potential intervention, one provides that intervention and that intervention in itself is a form of assessment and is a continuing process.

The standard operating procedure has been specifically introduced to prioritise the importance of intervention, to have it informed by prior assessment but not to have the unfortunate situation we had before, where people were on waiting lists for a long time for an assessment and then in some cases waiting four or five years for an intervention following the assessment. We could not stand over that and that is why it has been so important to develop a standard operating procedure that is effective, efficient and even more important, is equitable, in order that we do not have huge variations across the country in terms of access to interventions.