3,000 children in Cork waiting to be seen by disability service

Children’s Disability Network Teams provide services such as nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and social work

2,917 children are still waiting for an initial contact with their teams, so that they can be assessed and develop an Individual Family Service Plan to set out their specific strengths, needs, priorities and concerns.

More than 60% of children transferred to new Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) in Cork last spring are still waiting for their first contact with their designated care teams.

Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare rolled out CDNTs in April 2021. There are currently 14 listed on the HSE’s website, 11 in Cork and three in Kerry.

There were 4,611 children transferred to different teams around Cork in April. Only 1,694 of them have had their initial contact with their teams since then.

That means 2,917 children are still waiting for an initial contact with their teams, so that they can be assessed and develop an Individual Family Service Plan to set out their specific strengths, needs, priorities and concerns.

These figures exclude children transferred to West Cork CDNT as figures for this team had not been received at time of writing.

The figures were obtained through Parliamentary questions posed by East Cork Labour TD Sean Sherlock, a member of the Public Accounts Committee.

"The numbers of those awaiting an appointment across the Cork region is deeply concerning,” said Mr Sherlock. 

We have to remember that each number is a child, and behind that child is a family awaiting news of intervention. 

"We must ensure that frontline service providers are given every resource they need to ensure there is a regular intervention plan implemented for each child."

CDNTs were established under the Progressive Disability Services for Children and Young People Programme (PDS) to centralise services and supports for children with complex needs.

Many organisations provide services for children with a particular disability only. This means that in one area, there may be excellent services for some children with a particular diagnosis and little or no service for children with a different diagnosis.

CDNTs provide multiple and varying services such as nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and social work, all within the one designated geographical area; usually on the premises of a “Lead Agency” such as Enable Ireland or the Cope Foundation among others, and as close to home as possible for children and their families.

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In response to Mr Sherlock's question, Majella Daly, Head of Disability Services with Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare, has noted that CDNTs have experienced “significant challenges” in the months since reconfiguration in April.

“It is the objective of the CDNTs to ensure that all children transferred and newly referred will have timely access to the appropriate services, however the CDNT’s have experienced significant challenges in the months since reconfiguration,” said Ms Daly.

“Challenges include higher than predicted caseloads on each CDNT, restraints due to Covid and the HSE cyber-attack as well as finite and limited publicly funded resources assigned to each network. The HSE and Lead Agencies managing the CDNTs remain committed to ensure a safe, quality and timely service to children with disability and their families,” she added.