Minister will pledge to overhaul assessment system that is failing children with disabilities

Anne Rabbitte, Minster of State for Disability, will speak at today's Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality, and Integration about the assessment of need system. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The minister with responsibility for disabilities is expected to tell an Oireachtas committee today that the backlog in assessments of need is failing children and that she intends a system overhaul to change how the process is delivered.

Anne Rabbitte is to speak before the Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality, and Integration on the issue of assessment of need, which has already been the subject of criticism from the Ombudsman for Children and professional bodies.

The latest figures show a massive backlog of 6,000 assessment of need (AON) applications, with the HSE pledging to tackle it with the use of an allocation of €7.8m in additional funding cleared for the purpose last August.

It is understood the committee will hear that the backlog has now been reduced to around 4,700 cases.

However, just last week the Psychological Society of Ireland and others criticised recent changes to how AON operates, including the implementation at the start of this year by the HSE of a new standard operating procedure. Fears have been expressed that this could result in some incorrect diagnoses being provided.

An assessment of need is meant to be delivered within a limited, statutory timeframe, with the services required for the child to follow any diagnosis within a similar timeframe.

Without an assessment of need, children will be denied access to crucial treatments and therapies that are vital to their development.

Ms Rabbitte is expected to tell the committee that the assessment of need backlog has been a top priority and that the current waiting times for services for children with disabilities are totally unacceptable and need to be improved dramatically.

She is also expected to outline the need for a permanent solution rather than a temporary one, developed around a sustainable, child-centred model of service.

The committee will hear that this will centre on the rolling out of the Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People programme and, crucially, providing services based on need rather than a diagnosis.

Areas that have already reconfigured into network teams have had some success in streamlining the AON process — and it is understood this approach, as well as regular meetings with HSE Community Health Organisations, will help free up therapists once the backlog is cut, along with 100 additional therapy posts into children’s disability services next year as per Budget 2021.

The minister is expected to tell the committee that this should help tackle the constant breaches of the Disability Act when it comes to assessments of need.