Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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878. To ask the Minister for Health if he will address a matter (details supplied) regarding funding for provision of day care services for persons with special needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30911/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Government policy is to enable young people with disabilities to develop the skills they will need to live independent lives to the greatest extent possible, and to receive the supports they need in order to achieve this. Additional funding of €12 million, was allocated by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to meet the needs of around 1,500 young people who will require continuing health-funded supports on leaving school or rehabilitative training this year, of which €6 million is available to provide services from September.

In January 2015, a National Project Group was established by the HSE to develop and oversee a national process to responding to the needs of these young people and to ensure a consistent approach is taken across the country to meeting those needs. This initially involved identifying all individuals who would require a day service in 2015. Some young people with disabilities progress to vocational training, which is the responsibility of the Department of Education and Skills, or to further education, or employment and do not require a health-funded service. Other young people attend mainstream schools and are not in contact with the health services until they require health-funded supports on leaving school. Once individuals are identified and their individualised needs are assessed, the capacity of the existing services to meet those needs is determined. It is not until this process is completed that the number, location and type of additional support needs and resources can be finalised.

Finding the resources and the physical capacity to meet the needs of a growing number of new service users every year is a challenging task. When this year’s support requirements were identified, the cost of meeting those needs in full exceeded the amount available, therefore, an additional €1.5 million was added by the HSE to the overall allocation, making a total of €13.5 million full-year costs available to meet those needs. A further €1.5 million once-off capital funding was also allocated by the HSE for the provision of suitable buildings, premises and accommodation.

The approach adopted by the National Project Group from the outset was that a cost banding structure would be developed to inform the allocation of the available funds. The costing bands were then applied to the identified need in each of the county’s nine regions so that a nationally consistent approach would be applied, which was needs-based as opposed to population-based. Based on this cost-band structure, five support levels were identified and the following amounts were allocated for new placements at each support level: intensive support (€34,000); high (€16,000); moderate (€11,000); low (€7,000) and minimum (€5,000).

Most young people have been offered a placement from September which meets their needs. Only a small minority of placements remain to be finalised. The HSE is in contact with these young people and their families in order to resolve matters as quickly as possible. Over the coming weeks, the HSE will continue to actively work with service providers and families until placements are finalised for all young people at this important transition point in their lives and they will ensure that resources available for specialist disability services are used in the most effective manner possible.