Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy McAuliffe knows, CHO9 also covers my area. The children's disability network teams in CHO9 were fully established in late September 2021, with 12 CDNTs in place across the CHO. There are currently 283 posts assigned across the CDNTs in CHO9. This is the whole-time equivalent allocation for the area. Figures up to last month indicate approximately 194 posts were filled across the CDNTs. While funding has been allocated to fill vacancies, the vacancy rate throughout the CHO is 33%.

At present, there are significant challenges, which we discussed earlier, in recruiting and retaining staff in the healthcare sector, particularly with regard to the therapy professionals required in children’s disability services. This is leading to vacant posts in CDNTs throughout the country. Despite this, the CDNTs in CHO9 have increased their caseload by 654 children since reconfiguration in late 2021.

The HSE disability services, along with the lead agencies, in CHO9 are running a targeted international recruitment campaign for therapists and interviews are ongoing. Concurrently, the CHO has undertaken to increase administrative support to all the CDNTs, to enable existing clinical staff to devote more of their time directly to children and families.

The HSE is also taking measures nationally to encourage recruitment and retention of staff in CDNTs. These measures include targeted national and international recruitment to include an agreed relocation allowance where appropriate, apprentice and sponsorship programmes for therapy grades, employment of graduates as therapy assistants as they await CORU registration, and expansion of therapy assistants in the system with the HSE supporting individuals to return to education to qualify as therapists.

The HSE is also driving a number of initiatives to reduce waiting times for children and families and providing the support they so urgently need, such as sourcing therapy assessments and interventions externally via private service providers.

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