A member of the HSE’s Regional Health Forum says he accepts a commitment from Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte that she is closely monitoring the issues affecting Community Disability Network Teams in Donegal, and working to ensure that necessary resources are available.
Cllr Albert Doherty was responding to a detailed response sent by Minister Rabbitte on foot of a motion passed by Donegal County Council urging a response to the non-delivery of services.
In her reply, Minister Rabbitte says efforts are being made to recruit more staff, and resources are being shared between teams in the county.
He’s welcoming the minister’s interest and commitment, but says it must pay dividends…………
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Response from Minister Rabbitte’s office –
Minister Rabbitte has requested her officials to make enquiries with the HSE regarding your recent representations on regarding the Children’s Disability Network Teams, Donegal and has asked me to respond to you on this matter.
The correspondence was concerning the following motion which was adopted by the members of Donegal County Council a meeting of the Council:
“The Progressing Disabilities Service for Children and Young People presently is not delivering required services for the young people through the local CDNT services, Donegal County Council calls and directs that Minister Anne Rabbitte (Disabilities Minister) initiate an immediate review of PDS delivery in Donegal especially noting the failure to fill key positions in the local CDNT service, includes seeking and delivering pathways to enable trained therapists find employment in HSE services. Difficulties and delays experienced by applicants with registration with CORU must also be explored and resolved, by the Minister and her government colleagues.”
Disability Services are experiencing significant challenges in terms of recruitment and retention of staff to Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) in Co. Donegal particularly the Donegal East and Inishowen CDNT. Similar challenges exist in other CDNT services across the Community Healthcare area which covers Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo and indeed nationally.
The Children’s Disability Network Managers (CDNMs) in Co. Donegal and senior HSE management are actively engaging with the Human Resources department to fill all vacant posts. CDNTs are given priority in terms of recruitment campaigns and bespoke campaigns for the area and have ongoing active recruitment processes and initiatives in place to fill vacancies within the CDNTs. This includes rolling recruitment campaigns to facilitate a continuous intake of applications for therapy posts. The CDNMs are meeting weekly with HR who are prioritising the CDNT recruitment campaign. Recruitment to CDNTs is also receiving priority attention nationally due to the workforce challenges in this sector.
Senior management and therapists from Donegal Primary Care and Children’s Disability Services are engaged ongoing in exploring supports to assist with the delivery of services to children on CDNT caseloads. That said the staffing shortages of key, relevant disciplines such as Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Speech & Language Therapy and Psychology are resulting in challenges within Primary Care Services also. However, there is a process in place with the specialist seating service that is ongoing and children with specialised seating requirements are seen and equipment is signed off by the Primary Care Occupational Therapy Manager.
Community Healthcare Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo (CH CDLMS) established a bursary scheme in 2023, which will see 23 students in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Dietetics courses in Letterkenny Atalantic Technological University supported to complete their professional degree programme in a UK based college. Of the 23 bursaries awarded, it is expected that 12 of these will be assigned to posts in Disability Services within CH CDLMS. The first of the students to whom bursaries have been awarded will graduate in June 2024. CH CDLMS has committed to funding this bursary scheme for three years to try to attract suitably qualified Health & Social Care Professionals to posts in Disability Services.
Due to the greater staffing challenges faced by the Donegal East and Inishowen CDNT in Co. Donegal, there was also a decision made to prioritise all children with Priority 1 needs and some of the caseload was shared amongst the CDNT services across Co. Donegal. Cross-team support is being provided in the form of Physiotherapists from the CDNT Donegal South West undertaking physiotherapy clinics for children in the East Donegal and Inishowen area, including referrals for ankle/foot orthoses and screening referrals. Home visits have been carried out in the East area by the South West team to review equipment. In addition, an external private physiotherapist was sourced in November 2023. Some 55 children under CDNT Donegal East and Inishowen have been offered physiotherapy reviews and the private physiotherapist has carried out home visits to review equipment and develop intervention plans. A physiotherapy development clinic is also in place.
The Occupational Therapist from CDNT Donegal North is also providing support to the East area. Cross-cover will also be provided by the newly-appointed Physiotherapist and Occupational Therapist.
The Disability Services for Children and Young People Roadmap for Improvement 2023 – 2026 was developed in response to the challenges being experienced across the country in relation to CDNT services. The Roadmap has been approved by the HSE Board, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Minister Roderic O’Gorman, and Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte. The Roadmap is a targeted Service Improvement Programme to achieve a quality, accessible, equitable and timely service for all children with complex needs as a result of a disability and their families. The actions set out in the Roadmap aim to:
- Ensure children are referred to the most appropriate service (National Access Policy)
- Reduce the waiting time for children currently waitlisted for CDNTs
- Optimise use of voluntary and private disability service providers for assessments and interventions
- Improve HSE’s legislative compliance for AONs as defined in the Disability Act
- Improve outcomes for children and families and their experience of CDNT service • Enable teams to optimise service effectiveness and efficiencies, and opportunities to collaborate with community networks such as Children and Young People’s Services Committees.
- Improve staff retention on CDNTs in the longterm as a good place to work.
The HSE’s Service Improvement Programme Board and the 5 x working groups, to support the delivery of actions set out in the Roadmap, commenced meetings in February 2023. CH CDLMS will be progressing actions set out in the Roadmap as applicable to its area recognising there are also national level and cross departmental actions which will be required to enhance Community Healthcare areas ability to progress certain actions. Reports of progress on implementation of the Roadmap targets are to be published quarterly on the HSE’s website.
