Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Health the way he intends to ensure that plans by the Health Service Executive to reconfigure therapy resources such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy into geographic-based teams will not adversely affect children in special schools in view of the fact that it means that therapists in special schools will now have to travel to mainstream schools; if he will address concerns that this will lead to a reduction in the level of service to children in special schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51470/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Health Service Executive has recognised the need to increase the level of consistency and standardisation in the way both early intervention services and services for school-aged children with disabilities are delivered and to this end is currently engaged in a reconfiguration of existing therapy resources to geographic based teams for children (0-18 years).

The National Programme on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People (0-18 years) has been established since 2010. It is supported by a National Coordinating Group which has representatives from the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Skills in addition to other key stakeholders. The Programme is based on the recommendations of the Report of the National Reference Group on Multidisciplinary Services for Children aged 5-18 Years produced by representatives of the professions and management involved in delivering multi-disciplinary services to children (available on the HSE website www.hse.ie.)

The Programme aims to address the following issues in relation to children’s disability services:

- Inequity of access to services due to inconsistent development of services;

- Environmental change arising from the reorientation towards mainstream education leading to increasing demand for health services to support inclusion;

- Increasing demand for services due to population growth and increased identification of children with disability;

- The need to re-align services with emerging primary care and integrated service structures.

While the Programme supports the principle of providing access to mainstream education where appropriate, it also recognises a continuing role for special schools.

The Programme is rolling out at national, regional and local level and involves representatives from the health and education sectors, statutory and non-statutory service providers and parents working together to see how current services can best be re-organised. Implementation of the Programme encompasses two elements:

- Ongoing work in co-ordinating and re-organising early intervention services for children aged 0-5 years into integrated, geographically based teams;

- Supporting the re-organisation of services for school-age children aged 5-18 years according to the same model.

Decisions regarding any local re-organisation of services are the responsibility of the Local Implementation Groups (LIGs). These include stakeholders such as representatives of the service providers involved, parents and the educational sector representatives. Detailed local area action plans are being developed by the LIGs with the following objectives:

- One clear pathway to services for all children with disabilities according to need;

- Resources used to the greatest benefit for all children and families;

- Health and education working together to support children to achieve their potential.

The HSE is working very closely with the education sector, which is fully involved in the development of the Programme, to ensure that, from the children’s and parents’ perspective, the services provided by each sector are integrated. An Education and Health Working Group, comprising representatives of both sectors, is developing a framework for closer working relationships.

The long term goal of this Programme is to bring consistency in service delivery and a clear pathway to services for all children with disabilities according to need. Implementation of this Programme will have a positive impact on the provision of clinical services for all children requiring access to health related supports, regardless of where they live or which pre-school or school they attend.