Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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105. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of occupational therapists and speech and language therapists that have been employed in the past 24 months in Carlow and Kilkenny, respectively, for children with additional needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19201/24]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Carlow and Kilkenny are part of the South East Community healthcare region (CHO5) which comprises 13 CDNT teams in total.

In relation to Carlow and Kilkenny Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs), there are three CDNTs. These are Carlow CDNT, Thomastown CDNT and Kilkenny City CDNT.

There are currently 4.2 Occupational therapists and 10.4 Speech and language therapists in this geographical location.

The current delays in accessing therapy services, directly related to vacancies across the Carlow and Kilkenny CDNTs, are acknowledged and work is ongoing by the HSE to maximise capacity via recruitment campaigns and other measures across the CHO.

In addition to targeted advertising of posts on the HSE website, CHO5 is expanding their social media footprint to widen the pool of potential recruits and has engaged with local colleges to seek additional course placements to increase the pipeline of therapy graduates.

The HSE launched the ‘Be part of our team, be part of their lives’ campaign across social media and radio in January 2024. The first nationwide CDNT recruitment campaign, it targeted Dietitians, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Speech & Language Therapists. The HSE have recently completed interviews locally for all vacant clinical posts and job offers commenced in March.

Interviews were recently conducted within CHO5 resulting in three Senior Occupational therapists (OTs) being successful. There has also been one staff grade OT successful at interview.

There have also been four senior speech and language (SLTs) and two staff grade SLTs successful at interview

The PDS Roadmap sets out specific actions around the recruitment and retention of staff to CDNTs, and work is ongoing within the HSE, with input from my Department, to address current shortfalls across all clinical grades.