Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, the Minister of State with responsibility for disabilities, is fully committed to the continued development and enhancement of our children's disability services through the CDNTs, as they seek to ensure equitable access to services for all children with complex needs. I acknowledge the difficulties faced by children and their families seeking to access the services of children's disability network teams in CHO 2, and in this particular instance, CDNT 4. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, wishes to reiterate her unhappiness at this situation and her commitment to addressing the underlying issues.

The children's disability services in community healthcare west, CHW, were reconfigured into children's disability network teams in January 2021. There are nine CDNTs in CHW, including CDNT 4, which broadly covers the west Galway-Connemara area. Recruitment of staff to reduce waiting lists has been an ongoing issue, especially in this region. There are significant challenges both nationally and globally regarding the recruitment and retention of health and social care professionals, particularly to children's disability services. Following an intensive national recruitment campaign, we have recruited nearly 30 staff in the CHW region to date in 2024. While CDNT 4 has only been able to fill one post from this campaign, further campaigns are being run in an effort to attract suitable candidates to this area. While funding has been allocated, vacancy rates in CDNTs unfortunately remain high. On CDNT 4, the HSE advises that the vacancy rate currently stands at 50%, with six staff in place and six posts vacant.

CHW is fully committed to providing a quality service to the CDNT 4 cohort of clients, and every effort will be made to increase staffing numbers to support this during the remainder of 2024. These efforts are ongoing, both through the HSE's national recruitment service and HSE HR at a local level. Additional measures are also being progressed under the progressing disability services roadmap to increase capacity on CDNTs. These include student sponsorship programmes for health and social care professionals, HSCPs. There is a target of 175 therapy assistants to support HSCPs in delivering most effective and efficient services in environments appropriate to each child's needs. There is dedicated work on marketing CDNTs as a workplace of choice.

While recruitment measures are ongoing, I can advise that the HSE is driving forward several initiatives to reduce waiting times and strengthen services for children waiting. These efforts include sourcing assessments from private service providers. A new waiting list initiative with a total fund of €6.9 million will target those families waiting longest for assessments of need, with the HSE reimbursing clinicians directly through the procurement of capacity from approved private providers. This initiative will be progressed through the existing framework of providers procured by the HSE and is expected to provide an additional 2,500 assessments over a six-month period. While recruitment and retention of staff to CDNTs remains a considerable challenge, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, wishes to reaffirm her commitment, as well as that of the HSE and Department to exploring all avenues to improve access to CDNTs for children and their families in CDNT 4 and across the country.

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