Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleague and fellow Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, sends her apologies as she is currently in the Seanad and was not in a position to take this question.

The implementation of Progressing Disability Service for Children and Young People, PDS, programme is an agreed Government and HSE policy. This policy supports the reconfiguration of children's disability services to provide equitable child and family-centred services based on need rather than diagnosis. The PDS programme will ensure that services are provided for children with complex needs regardless of where they live or go to school.

In line with the PDS model, resources assigned for children's disability services are allocated to the birth to 18 years disability network teams rather than a dedicated early intervention team or dedicated school age team. No longer will a child age out of the services. Before, when one reached the age of six, one was transferred to different services. With this new PDS model, services will be allocated from birth to age 18 years, which I am sure everybody will welcome. There are now 88 network teams in place and the remaining three will be in place by the end of the year. This constitutes the most significant re-organisation of health and social care services ever undertaken in the State.

The reconfiguration of network teams has been challenging, particularly in regard to staffing issues. Currently, there are a number of vacancies on children's disability network teams in each community healthcare organisation, CHO. Recruitment is being progressed, as a matter of urgency, by HSE national recruitment services, and directly in the case of section 39 lead agencies, in order to support network teams to optimise service delivery. There are recruitment challenges due to the significant availability of new posts across the wider HSE in areas such as primary care and services for older people.

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