Dr. Alison Harnett:

We are at a point in time where very few people have actually had a personalised budget. We are in a position where we are waiting for the evaluation of that pilot to see how this can be afforded to more people as an option. As Ms Mallon mentioned, since 2015 there has been funding in for those people who are leaving school and there is a cohort of people who have been in services a lot longer and there has not been the same level of investment possible for those people. While services move as much of their resources around as creatively as they can when monitoring comes in there is a gap. It is true to say there will be areas of the service that people really want to improve to access that rights-based approach we are all signed up to and want to deliver. With those staffing difficulties, as outlined by Ms Mallon, this affects section 38 organisations as much as section 39 organisations but in different ways, and until some of these problems are ironed out it is really a challenge to deliver the kind of service and supports that are wanted by all stakeholders. The personalised budgets have not really had the impact in volume yet because they have been for a very small number people.