Why a €200k donation is doing what the Government won’t for Cork’s most vulnerable children
Anne Hartnett with the assistance dog Iggles, staff and pupils of St. Paul's School, Montenotte, Cork, celebrating an anonymous €200k donation to the school. Picture: Dan Linehan
“To get the good news was like a ray of sunshine,” principal Anne Hartnett said after €200,000 was donated anonymously to St Paul’s special school in Cork.
The donor read in a newspaper that the school was struggling to provide therapists to over 95 children there and reached out to help.
“They asked, ‘what do you most need?’ And I said ‘we need therapists.’ We are indebted to this person. But it is an absolute disgrace that that's what we've had to spend it on. We should have that anyway. But we can't take the chance and wait on the government. Isn't that an appalling indictment of our government and of society? We're just not important enough.”
And money is available with Ireland clutching the purse strings to a historic budget surplus of €25bn announced before the last budget for 2024 and a surplus of almost €12bn forecast for 2025.
St Paul’s special school in Montenotte cares for some of the country’s most vulnerable and medically complex children with intellectual disabilities. It is one of 16 schools admitted to a pilot scheme where some therapists are being given back to schools, but it still had no physiotherapist despite that being desperately needed in the school.
But a speech and language therapist (SLT) has started at the school and an occupational therapist is due to start before Easter through the government pilot scheme.
“Finally, we thankfully have a wonderful SLT and he’s with us five days a week, fulltime. He started a number of weeks ago. And he’s a senior therapist. We’re thrilled. And we're waiting on a senior occupational therapist to start, we’ve been told before Easter, which is also wonderful.
“But we were never asked what therapists we needed most. We needed a physiotherapist as the second most crucial professional, after an SLT. But there was no mention of a physiotherapist.
“So when this beyond generous donation came in we could use the money to pay for a physiotherapist, a wonderful physiotherapist to come to the school two days a week for the next five years. Nobody can take that away from us.
“That's the big thing because you're afraid of your life [that it could be withdrawn]. We've been unofficially told that therapists through the pilot scheme will not be withdrawn, but for all we know, that could be taken from us next year.
“Whereas this physiotherapist post will not be taken off us because we've got money ring-fenced.”
St Paul’s was also one of four Cope Foundation schools to benefit from a generous gift of €50,000 each from a mystery donor last year. The mystery donor gifted what is believed to be more than half a million euro to multiple Cork schools and charities.
St Paul’s children are aged four to 18. Some 47 children have a moderate intellectual disability and 48 children have a severe or profound intellectual disability.
And many of the children have complex additional needs, including being peg fed, hearing or sight disabilities, behavioural or physical disabilities with many wheelchair users. All children at the school need therapists.
But despite their pain and challenges, the children are an endless joy to be around and to work with, Ms Hartnett said.
“And how good would you or I be if we were in their situation, where if we had an itch we couldn't scratch it? Or if you had a massive toothache and you couldn't communicate it?
“So let's help them as much as we can. Let's make their time with us as pleasant as we can."
And with the right supports, the children can thrive. The school has speech technology because most of the pupils are non-verbal.
But one of the pupils with a moderate intellectual disability who is non-verbal taught Ms Hartnett how to use that speech technology very ably when she visited the classroom.
“My God they can learn. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes! They're well able,” she said.
Special schools across Ireland have been struggling since therapists were removed from schools from 2018 under a much-criticised HSE reorganisation of disability services called Progressing Disabilities. All of the children’s “most basic of life skills” have been impacted by the lack of therapists since 2018.
And the younger the children can get support, the better their chances of reaching their full potential and living more comfortably. The therapists issue is still falling between two departments – the HSE and the Department of Education – which creates confusion and lack of clear accountability, she said.
The National Association of Special School Principals (NASSP) was founded last year to try to be a voice for pupils with additional needs and to address the communication gap and general shortfalls in services, she said, while NASSP is now mandated to represent all 141 special schools in the country.
"We keep saying, 'bring NASSP to the decision-making table and we will save you money. We have the solutions.”
One of these solutions is removing the responsibility of providing therapists from the HSE. A system already exists for providing psychologists in schools – the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).
This psychological service in the Department of Education provides educational psychological support to primary, post-primary and special schools in Ireland, with each psychologist assigned to a group of schools. Other therapists could be provided through bodies like this operating within the Department of Education rather than the HSE, Ms Hartnett said.
“I'm so frustrated because we are easy to fix," she said.
“And we are so cheap to fix. We're less than 2% of the school-going population. And if you fixed us, it would have a domino effect in supporting our mainstream colleagues when they’re putting on special classes. We have all the systems and we know what the children need.
“And if our children were given the wraparound support that they need from the therapists, they would not have parents who are as stressed. Parents need the support as well.
"We've had enough of the [government] platitudes."
A spokesperson for the Department of Education told the that the department is conscious of the benefits of therapy services for children.
"In that regard, the department has developed, in conjunction with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS) which will comprise, initially, 39 therapists who will work in schools to build the capacity of teachers and other school staff.
"The Educational Therapy Support Service has two strands, Strand I will provide regional therapy supports to schools and Strand II will provide sustained supports to schools including special schools. The NCSE is in the process of recruiting therapists at this time, to reach the full complement of 39 therapists as sanctioned in June 2024."
Phase 1 of the Enhanced In-School Therapy Supports pilot started in September 2024, in six schools in Cork and Dublin. An additional 10 schools were announced as part of the pilot on 8 November, 2024.
"Based on updates received as part of the ongoing engagement with colleagues in Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and the Health Service Executive (HSE) we can advise that all six schools in Phase 1 have filled most of the therapy posts assigned as part of the pilot," the Department of Education spokesperson said.
"This includes three of the Cork area schools and one of the Dublin area schools in Phase 1, who have now filled all therapy posts allocated as part of the pilot."
The fourth Cork school in Phase 1 has a SLT in post and an OT due to start, the spokesperson said. The remaining Dublin school in Phase 1 has filled one post, with recruitment efforts ongoing for the remaining post, they said.
![Anne Hartnett: 'We've had enough of the [government] platitudes.' Picture: Dan Linehan](/cms_media/module_img/9063/4531879_12_articleinlinemobile_dan_20paul_202.jpg "Anne Hartnett: 'We've had enough of the [government] platitudes.' Picture: Dan Linehan")
"All schools in Phase 1 of the pilot are receiving some provision of additional in-school therapy supports, with recruitment efforts ongoing by HSE and the Lead agencies to fill outstanding posts, to scale up provision to targeted levels."
The 10 schools in Phase 2 of the pilot will come on board on a phased basis in 2025. The first Cork school in Phase 2 has filled the SLT post and has an OT at the pre-employment stage of recruitment. The second Cork school in Phase 2 has filled the OT post, with recruitment ongoing for the SLT post.
"While recruitment efforts are ongoing, the children in each of the 16 special schools continue to receive supports through their local Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT). The HSE advises that it is pursuing all measures to bridge the gaps that currently exist between intended levels of service and what is being delivered," the spokesperson said.
"The learnings of this pilot will inform and assist in the development of a National Therapy Service, work on which is underway. The development of the National Therapy Support Service is a standalone commitment in the programme for government and is a cross-department initiative. It will ensure that a coordinated approach will be employed to increase college places for health and social care professionals."
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