Assessment of need reform is just rhetoric without a workforce plan for children’s disability services

No more announcements without staffing. No more reform without a workforce plan. Anything less is simply setting the system up to fail again, writes Linda Kelly

Cara Darmody: 'The staffing is going to have to be right for this to work, because if it’s not, there’s going to be a big problem.' Photo: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

The Government’s latest “targeted reforms” to the assessment of need (AoN) process, announced last week by ministers Norma Foley and Emer Higgins, arrived with familiar fanfare. Promises of faster reports, freed-up therapists, and a system finally beginning to work as it should. 

But for families facing years-long waits, and for the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) trying to hold the service together, these reforms arrive with an uncomfortable question. How many times can we re-engineer a broken system before we admit that the real issue lies elsewhere?