Ms Mellany McLoone:

It would not necessarily be in schools but with the children's disability network teams. I am referring to looking at more group therapies so we can provide a service to the population more quickly. To be fair, speaking on behalf of all the CHOs, we have absolutely exhausted the private sector. The one cautionary point I would make, to be fair to all the health and social care professionals who work in the service, is that they really want to maintain the standard of service, so where we are outsourcing we want to ensure the service provided is of similar quality as it would be if people were receiving it from the HSE. That requires a level of clinical governance. As Mr. Gloster alluded to in his opening statement, there is quite a robust roadmap.

The other point is that over the past 12 months the development of the community healthcare networks, coupled with the children's disability networks, is in itself enabling far more integrated work. I certainly find that in my CHO. People are located together and there is greater trust and communication-building. All those things are supporting a more integrated system. It sounds very simple but it is not easy. At the front line where the teams are providing that service, there is a really strong willingness for them to do that.