Lack of consultation on new plans for Children’s Disabilities Services criticised

“Yesterday the Roadmap for Service Improvement: Disability Services for Children and Young People 2023 - 2026 was launched by Ministers Roderic O’ Gorman and Anne Rabbitte.  The Roadmap’s first SMART Action pledges that ‘all service/support providers will work together in a planned and intentional way’.

Regrettably, preparation of the Roadmap did not adopt this approach. While we welcome elements of the Roadmap, the fact remains, that yet again, in developing this document there was a lack of engagement with either the professional bodies,  frontline staff, FÓRSA or service users and their families.

The ISCP along with the other  representative HSCP  professional bodies repeatedly sought engagement with the HSE, Department of  Health and Oireachtas about serious safety and governance concerns in Paediatric Disability Services  to no avail.  The new roadmap for  children’s disability network teams (CNDT) has been developed and launched without proper consultation with key stakeholders , despite the existence of consultative structures and  repeated requests for involvement.

This is yet another disingenuous  example of a roadmap being launched, thereby raising public expectations about improved services, but  with a total lack of appreciation of the current operational challenges that urgently need to be addressed. This Roadmap does nothing to alleviate our concerns, specifically those regarding  professional line management and the lack of clinical governance and supervision being offered to frontline staff.  

The ISCP strives to provide the best possible services for children and young people.  We want immediate engagement with the HSE to address our grave concerns about deficiencies in the Roadmap.”