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

I join the Ceann Comhairle in thanking Deputy Flaherty for raising this important issue. He has given us a real sense of the great work done at St. Christopher's and the real challenges that the staff there face in dealing with very vulnerable students with complex needs.

Both myself and the Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Rabbitte, are fully committed to the development and enhancement of children’s disability services, and to ensure access for all children with complex needs across the country. This includes all appropriate therapies and respite services, including in-school nursing supports. Following discussions with An Taoiseach and Ministers in 2022 regarding the priority requirement to reinstate the health and social care supports that were historically provided in some special schools in the State, it was agreed that funding would be provided for an additional 136 posts to progress this requirement. It was agreed that the special school-based services must be aligned with the existing children’s disability network teams, CDNTs. Having listened to the ongoing concerns of parents of children with complex needs who attend special schools, and mindful of this Government’s priority to deliver comprehensive on-site health and social supports to special schools, the HSE was requested to commence the process of allocating further staffing resources to these schools.

The local CDNT continues to provide support to St. Christopher’s special school within the resources available to the team. Service delivery is based on prioritised clinical needs and available resources. However, as we all recognise, the HSE and the various lead agencies are experiencing ongoing challenges recruiting staff across a range of disciplines and grades to fully staff each team to maximum capacity. These challenges are reflective of the issues affecting the wider health and social care sector and are very much the focus of the Progressing Disability Services, PDS, roadmap that myself and Deputy Rabbitte are working on in conjunction with the HSE. Since St. Christopher’s reopened, the CDNT has provided occupational therapy and physiotherapy supports, both in terms of direct hours of support to the school and indirect tasks linked to supporting children to access their educational placement. These hours are reflective of the prioritised needs of the children currently but will vary from week to week, and month to month.

As part of a Government initiative to enhance supports in special schools, all CHOs received an allocation of senior health and social care posts. The posts in CHO 8 were distributed across 14 special schools. St Christopher's received an allocation of one post and this has just been filled, with a new post holder due to commence in early October.

Specifically in respect of the nursing post, we have requested information from the HSE on the proposed extension from 14 to 32 hours. Unfortunately, because we are dealing with Topical Issues much earlier than anticipated today, I do not have a response for the Deputy right now but as soon as it comes in, I will send it on to him. I am sorry that I do not have it here now but it is just a matter of timing.

On the wider issues, while the recruitment challenges are there and do make things difficult, I want to reiterate my full commitment, and that of the Department and the HSE, to pursuing every avenue to ensure access and availability of appropriate respite and therapies for children with disabilities in Longford and across the wider CHO 8 area.

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