Cork's Children Disability Network Teams facing complaints amid 'significant challenges'
The CDNT scheme was rolled out by the HSE last year in a bid to provide a range of supports to children with complex needs.
Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) in Cork are facing high numbers of complaints due to a lack of resources, as almost 2,200 children in the region await initial contact from the service.
CDNTs are teams of health and social care professionals, including nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, social work and others.
The CDNT scheme was rolled out by the HSE last year in a bid to provide a range of supports to children with complex needs and their families, in their respective regions.
However, figures provided to the Labour Party and admissions from Cork Kerry Community Healthcare show that CDNTs are facing huge difficulties in carrying out this mission.
A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare highlighted challenges in the form of higher than predicted caseloads, a lack of suitable workspaces, resources and admin support, as well as no suitable integrated information management system.
The spokesperson also revealed that CDNTs across Cork are dealing with “high numbers of complaints” from service users, the education sector and other health services.
There are 10 CDNTs across Cork city and county with around 191 full-time staff, currently dealing with a total caseload of more than 6,800 children, according to the latest figures from the HSE provided to Cork Labour TD Seán Sherlock.
Some 2,192 of these children are still waiting for initial contact from their CDNT.
Meanwhile, the staff vacancy rate for CDNTs across Cork stood at 18% at the end of August this year.
A spokesperson for Cork Kerry Community Healthcare explained that CDNTs have experienced “significant challenges” in attempting to provide the services they were intended for.
“Challenges include higher than predicted caseloads on each CDNT, which is based on 3.5% of the population presenting with complex needs within a network population of 50,000, as well as finite and limited publicly funded resources assigned to each network,” the spokesperson explained.
“Challenges also include the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, lack of suitable accommodation for the teams as well as very limited administrative support.
“Furthermore, there is no integrated information management system for the teams leading to inefficient operational management systems."
The spokesperson admitted that, as things stand, the demand for assessment and intervention outweighs the resource capacity of the teams.
“Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Disability Services ... have used time related savings to resource additional administration personnel and the National CDNT Management Information System is due to be implemented across the CDNTs in Cork and Kerry across 2023.
“We sincerely regret that any child has to wait for an assessment.
“Cork Kerry Community Healthcare would like to assure parents that we will continue to work on a number of initiatives aimed at reducing the waiting times for assessment within the current levels of staffing available.”
Seán Sherlock said waiting lists for children’s disability services are being severely impacted by the “recruitment and retention crisis” in the health service, particularly among Section 39 organisations.
He highlighted the need for increased government funding for these organisations to ensure staff can be recruited and retained.
