Mr. Odhr?n Allen:

I wish to respond to the question about PDS as a model. We are circling around the questions of whether PDS working, if it can work, if it is the right model, if it is failing, whether there are enough resources and what would make it work. It is important to acknowledge that if you take the right model and allocate the right resources but you do not engage in proper change management in moving from one model of service delivery to this new model, which can work, then it will go wrong. That is part of what is happening at the moment. There was no proper change management. There were specialist services for physical and sensory disabilities, autism, and so on, which were merged into children's disability network teams.

There was a lot of preparatory work that therapists on the ground were involved in. I am sure some of the people at the committee today were involved in developing intake assessment forms, policy documents and different protocols. All of those things were worked on for a number of years, but when go-live happened and all of the teams were reconfigured, none of this documentation was to be seen. People were just left. Nothing was in place. That is a failure of change management. No system, service or business can operate when you are implementing a major change and you do not do proper change management. Even with the right resources and the right model, if you do not manage the change properly it will not work.

That has to be acknowledged. There was a failure of change management. People were left floundering.

Then people were brought in who perhaps had never worked in particular areas and who did not have any or recent clinical experience working with children with particular needs. For example, some therapists may have had great expertise in physical and sensory disabilities but may have lacked experience or confidence in working with children with autism. They were thrown in as occupational therapists, speech therapists or psychologists to do the assessments. There was no continuing professional development. There was no training. That is what I mean by change management. Where there was a clear and robust framework for someone to work within, there was guidance and there was training delivered. None of that happened. People were just thrown in the deep end and expected, a, for example, an occupational therapist, to carry out assessments. What does somebody do where he or she has to carry out an assessment in respect of a complex situation involving a child and a family and where he or she has never worked in the area? Does he or she go on the Internet and look up, "How do I do this assessment?" That is the challenge that people have been facing.

It has to be acknowledged that there was a complete lack of change management. That is something that still needs to happen. Families do not know what this model can do. They need to be sold on what PDS can offer. Therapists need to be supported to deliver everything that PDS can deliver. Even putting all the posts in place and increasing the number of staff, you still need to provide the supports and the structures that can enable this change to happen and be successful.