Mr. Bernard O'Regan:

I thank the Deputy for her question. I will invite Professor MacLachlan to also comment on it. The nature of the reform and change we are engaged in as regards children's disability services is very significant and is one of the most significant reform programmes. The reorganising of the children's network teams, which will be completed this year, is a major shift in trying to reconstruct how services are delivered in order that they are fair and equitable. That has to be accompanied by expanding the size of those teams and increasing the staffing on them. Significant additional posts were allocated for this year, which are being put in place. There will be additional increases next year, but it is also about introducing new ways for those teams to work, such as the standard operating procedure we have introduced in order that people can have their needs assessed as expeditiously as possible and that we can get into the space of intervention and aligning it with the assessments that need to happen.

This is one of our most significant priority areas. Colleagues in community healthcare organisations, CHOs, CDNTs and nationally are working in alignment with one another to effect the changes that are needed. It is in order to make sure that we have a system in place where the kinds of issues the Deputy identified become redundant, we have a service model that is easily accessible, one that is not reliant on families having to use resources in order to access private services, and that the system is equitable. Professor MacLachlan might want to comment further.