Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch.

Under the Health Act 2004, the Health Service Executive, HSE, is required to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services, including disability services. The HSE, through its occupational guidance service, works with schools, service providers, service users and families to identify the needs of young people with disabilities who are due to complete their second level education. This process requires flexibility from disability service providers and the maximisation of additional capacity from within existing resources. Some referrals are appropriate for rehabilitative training programmes and others are suitable for other disability and mainstream services.

Where appropriate, the occupational guidance officer will refer and support the individual to access FÁS services in line with the operational protocols agreed between the HSE and FÁS at national level. Referrals are also made to other services appropriate to the individual. The aim is to address the needs of individuals in one or more of the following ways: health funded rehabilitative training; health funded day services; FÁS funded rehabilitative training; FÁS funded vocational training; and approval to extend education placement for a specified time. The plan for each individual is dependent on final decisions by service users where more than one service model may be considered; approval, if requested, to extend current educational placements; and capacity of providers to make best use of available resources.

The HSE monitors the outcome of this process to ensure that, in as far as possible, the needs of each individual young person with a disability leaving school are addressed. The demand for services for school leavers continues to grow. The planning process is under way to ensure all school leavers requiring services are considered and prioritised. The HSE expects that approximately 600 school leavers will require services in 2012. Other health funded day services are provided from the range of general day services provision for adults with disability. While the executive makes every effort to provide day services to people over 18 on leaving school, this always has been dependent on the availability and location of appropriate places coupled with the needs of the individual school leaver.

In the current year, the disability services will be required to cater for demographic pressures such as new services for school leavers and emergency residential placements, from within their existing budgets. Meeting the needs of all school leavers with disabilities will be challenging. However, both the voluntary sector and the HSE are committed to the best use of available resources in a creative and flexible manner to be as responsive as possible to the needs that present. There is evidence that an accelerated move towards a new model of individualised, person-centred service provision in the community can help to achieve efficiencies, particularly relating to services for those with mild or moderate intellectual disability.

The emerging departmental policy direction - the value for money and policy review, coupled with recommendations from HSE national working groups on key service areas, including the forthcoming review of HSE funded adult day services, emphasise the need for a new model of service provision that, if agreed by Government, will further the independence of people with disabilities in an efficient and cost effective manner. The adult day services review will be published in the coming weeks and will contain recommendations that will guide the reconfiguration and modernisation of services in this area. I regret to say it is not an option to seek additional funding. There are huge pressures on all our public services and for that reason a much higher level of flexibility and creativity is required. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

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