Mr. Enda McGorman:

There was a time schools were directly involved and they could make direct referrals to services such as CAMHS. That has changed, and those referrals now have to be made through the GP rather than the school. The nature of how referrals are made has moved such that they are parent and family centred rather than school centred. This means it is the parents' responsibility to make the referral, but that assumes parents are agentic and in control and can manoeuvre the web of waiting lists that is out there. Parents will then ask us whether we can intervene on their behalf, so we need to get written consent from parents for every service under the GDPR and all the other barriers that are put in our way. There was a time when I could ask for a case conference in respect of a child, where the child was at the centre of the table, and I would speak figuratively before the meeting about the child being at the centre of the table, where I could draw in those services. That has been diluted to the point where it just does not exist anymore, and that is down to staffing levels and to the cuts that were introduced ten years ago not having been reinstated. The service has been absolutely skeletised. We have talked about balkanisation, the need for integration and joined-up thinking and silos. We have an amazing vocabulary but we have not made the connections we need to make. I work in a children’s and young people’s services committee, CYPSC, the young people services committees that try to bring together the health and education services, such as Tusla, CAMHS and primary care. The Department of Education will not even turn up to discuss these issues. It tells us it is a matter for the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, or NEPS. We cannot get it to engage. I am working on a pilot project in my area, in Dublin 15, to see whether we can get back to doing what we used to do, namely, family-based services. The one thing we know about almost every child in the country is that they attend school, so let us pull services in around those children in order that we can make a difference. It comes down to the recruitment and retention issues that the Deputy and other members raised. Schools can be part of the solution but it is about pulling the services in around the child and putting the child at the centre.