Children with disabilities 'need a national advocacy service'

While an advocacy service for adults with disabilities has existed in Ireland since 2011, advocacy groups say such a free service would improve how the current system functions. Picture: iStock 

Disabilities rights organisations are to call for the introduction of a dedicated national advocacy service for children with disabilities today to “prevent crisis situations in families occurring”.

Rights groups including Inclusion Ireland and Empowering People in Care (Epic) will argue before the Oireachtas disabilities committee that the introduction of such a free service would not be an “additional burden” on the system and would improve how the current system functions.

An advocacy service for adults with disabilities has existed in Ireland since 2011.

There is no specific provision for a similar advocacy service for children under international law; however, similar organisations have been established in other jurisdictions, including England and Wales.

Inclusion Ireland chief executive Derval McDonagh will tell the committee the establishment of such an organisation — which Inclusion Ireland has been calling for since 2024 — would “begin to shine a light where it needs to be shone”.

Inclusion Ireland chief executive Derval McDonagh. File picture: Karl Hussey

She will speak of the “deep concern” surrounding the number of children with disabilities who are going into residential care in Ireland.

“Our overall approach needs to be the prevention of crisis and the provision of rights based, meaningful, comprehensive and consistent support to vindicate a child’s right to live within their family,” she will say.

Ms McDonagh will argue that families of children with disabilities speak of “significant uncertainty in navigating everyday challenges”, with families struggling to access the “practical information needed to support their child at home”.

She will say respondents to information surveys by her own organisation consistently identify the need for practical and consistent information about their own situation and for “support from a trusted source or advocate”, roles that are currently being largely being performed by social media.

Lack of after-care planning

The chief executive of Epic, Wayne Stanley, will argue that children with intellectual disabilities are 12 times more likely to find themselves living in care than non-disabled children, while those with more complex needs are more likely to be placed in residential care rather than foster care.

He will say a “key issue” presenting in cases before Epic — one which could be engaged with by a potential national advocacy service — is that of a lack of after-care planning for children before they turn 18.

“Late initiation of planning means services frequently react to crises rather than preventing them,” Mr Stanley is expected to say. “Disability case management is limited, and long-term planning is inconsistent.

He will also argue the system as it stands often refuses access to children without a moderate disability diagnosis, “leaving those with mild intellectual disability without adequate support”. He will say: 

A representative advocacy service would not only benefit children and young people — it would also strengthen the effectiveness of the broader system. 

A dedicated national advocacy service would support “better-informed and more sustainable outcomes”, he will say.

“Investing in advocacy is not an additional burden on the system - it is a practical mechanism for improving how the system functions.”