Children at Cork special school 'desperately need' the promised reinstatement of therapists

Anne Hartnett, the principal of St Paul's School in Cork, has not yet heard of any school having their therapists reinstated

'There’s still a massive shortage of posts — and they need to recruit and make it attractive for people to apply,' said Anne Hartnett, principal of St Paul's School in Montenotte, Cork. File picture: Jim Coughlan

Special needs schools in Cork are still waiting for much-needed therapists to help children with additional needs learn and progress this term.

It is understood that therapists are to be reinstated in special schools from this month — but one Cork school the Irish Examiner spoke to has not received any therapists yet and is not aware of any school that had.

Anne Hartnett, principal of St Paul’s School in Montenotte in Cork City, said she believes serious efforts are being made to get therapists back into schools but they were not there yet.

“I do know that they’re trying to get therapists back into schools. That is an absolute fact,” Ms Hartnett said.

“But we haven’t seen them yet, unfortunately.

Children in this school desperately need therapeutic input. We need therapists on site and we need them on site yesterday because they’re storing up problems for the future.

“We have 97 children and every single one needs at least one type of therapy — be it SLT [speech and language therapy], OT [occupational therapy], physio.

“We always have nurses, but even at that we need an additional nurse. Our school is the most complex school medically in Cork, probably the most complex medically in Munster. 

"We have one full-time nurse and one third — she’s shared between two other special schools. But we absolutely need another full-time nurse, critically.”

“I know that they’re trying, but there’s understaffing across the board.”

Ms Hartnett welcomed news of a recruitment drive abroad to try to bring these vital professionals to Ireland.

But she said that more posts would need to be created, in addition to filling the many current vacancies.

There’s still a massive shortage of posts — and they need to recruit and make it attractive for people to apply.

Ms Hartnett praised therapists for their "incredible, dedicated work", but said they faced impossible workloads.

She also praised the Cope Foundation, a major disabilities service provider in Cork, for their dedication and repeated efforts to secure more resources from the HSE.

“The therapists, I can’t praise them highly enough, there’s just not enough of them,” she said.

“If your post is for 400 children how can you possibly reach everybody? You can’t. That does not make for an attractive job. 

These are highly skilled professionals and they need to be given the supports so they can do their job effectively. And by doing their job effectively the children progress. 

“Cope Foundation are also trying to do everything they can but they’re completely constrained because they’re not getting the financial support from the HSE, it’s as simple as that.”

She said that the majority of pupils in her school are from the Cork Central Children’s Disability Network Team which is hugely stretched.

Children with additional needs were supposed to access therapies and care through their local Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT) which were set up under Progressing Disability Services (PDS). This PDS programme sought to reorganise children’s disability services to make access to therapies and care more equitable across the country.

But parents of children with disabilities have slammed the programme, saying that their children have less access to vital therapeutic interventions and care than ever before.

Recent figures show that not one CDNT in Ireland was fully staffed and they were operating at more than 20% vacancy on average.

Therapists were removed from special schools under PDS but Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte has committed to having them reinstated.