James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Question 175: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the details of the value for money policy review of disability services which is under way; when this review will be completed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41233/09]

John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Review of the Efficiency and Effectiveness of disability services in Ireland is being undertaken in the context of the Government's Value for Money and Policy Review Initiative 2009-2011. This indepth review of disability services will assess how well current services for people with disabilities meet their objectives and support the future planning and development of services. The evaluation will focus on the current provision of disability services and explore the way forward for the development of services within a value for money and policy framework. The steering group is chaired by an independent chairperson, Mr. Laurence Crowley, and has two other independent members, as well as members drawn from the disability sector, the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Finance and the Health Service Executive. The review is due to report in September 2010. A structured consultation process with service users and service providers will be an integral part of the review, and submissions will be invited from the public in the near future. The objectives of the review are to examine disability services in Ireland funded by the HSE, including the statutory and non-statutory sectors; to deliver a comprehensive analysis of data in relation to services and service providers; and to deliver an implementation plan to address the findings and recommendations of the final report. A significant element of the project is a policy review which will define and describe the objectives of disability services going forward; consider the extent to which existing policies are consistent with delivery of those objectives; assess whether current policies and investments arising from those policies are sustainable in the context of the changing economic climate; and propose the policy changes, if any, that are needed to ensure that overall objectives are delivered.

The terms of reference for the review are to identify the objectives which have pertained to date for the disability services programme in the health sector; to examine the current validity of those objectives and their compatibility with the overall strategy of the Department of Health and Children, the National Disability Strategy and Towards 2016; to define the outputs associated with the programme activity and identify the level and trend of those outputs; to identify any issues with the availability of information regarding current outputs and outcomes; to examine the extent to which the programme's objectives have been achieved and comment on the effectiveness with which they have been achieved; to identify the level and trend of costs and staffing resources associated with the disability services and thereby comment on the efficiency with which it has achieved its objectives; to compare overall costs, including wage costs and non-pay costs, across the sector (both statutory and non-statutory); to examine, having regard to the range of providers of disability services, whether there is scope to minimise overheads, including administrative costs, management structures, research, advertising, profile-building and infrastructure costs; to evaluate the degree to which the objectives warrant the allocation of public funding on a current and ongoing basis and examine the scope for alternative policy or organisational approaches to achieving these objectives on a more efficient or effective basis; to specify potential future performance indicators that might be used to better monitor the performance of the disability services programme; and to produce a final robust report containing findings and recommendations in relation to the first nine terms of reference I have listed.