Ms Tara Doheny:

One of the other key ingredients, when we set out in the service reform fund, was that we sat down with the HSE national disability teams. Three members from that team worked with us hand in glove, as Dr. Lally said. We turned up to every meeting together so they picked up all of our tricks of the trade at the same time. When we set out the criteria for funding, we worked very much in tandem with the HSE. We said these were the criteria and we asked how these would land with the community health organisations, CHOs, and the senior manager within of each services. They obviously knew what funding the HSE service providers were getting, so they were able to say when applications came in that they were already getting funding for that and that there was no need to double fund. Funding was an important aspect of this as well. I remember going out to one of the services one time. It said it just could not buy a bus for this. We said that this was tied to people moving into the community. We need to be able to track people and see how it is going.

The HSE was involved in the training with us all along. It came with us on the journey, so it has the skills to continue with this work. As I said in the opening statement, the SSDL training is continuing through the national HSE office and the community practice. This is an excellent resource to have.

As for people and families who do not want to move, a key thing we ingrained in all the staff was that everybody had the opportunity and chance to work with a staff member in an individualised way and to say what they wanted and that they wanted to explore it. In the early days, we worked with people who really wanted this and with families who said they wanted a different type of service. As more people started to move, other families or individuals who were not maybe as keen said that people had their own house and that they had visited them and asked when they were getting their house and when they could move into the community and do X, Y or Z. That had a ripple effect. However, some people said it was not for them and that this was not what they wanted. Other arrangements were made in terms of moving into other group homes and so on. If there was a HIQA closure order and the building had to close, other arrangements were made. One thing we said at the outset was that everybody had to have the opportunity to do that one-on-one discovery, or that piece. That was a key as well, so that nobody got left behind.