The HSE has shown “little or no follow through” in its attempts to reform children’s disability services, a health workers' group has claimed. 

The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) is warning that health and social workers are currently struggling to deliver “safe and effective” services to children with disabilities.

On Newstalk Breakfast, this morning, IASLT Chief Edel Dunphy said children are being let down by the HSE. 

“We have ongoing concerns about the lack of accountability, implementation of specialist clinical pathways, the impact on clinicians, recruitment challenges and the very high levels of stress that are being experienced by families and by clinicians on the ground,” she said. 

“Engagement with the HSE over the years has resulted in little or no follow through and there’s continued concerns being raised by our members, by other professionals and by parents themselves. 

“At the crux of this is that children and families deserve access to evidence-based, high quality, appropriate and timely interventions - and they’re simply not getting this.” 

Recruitment

Ms Dunphy said recruitment and retention in particular remains a huge challenge for the health service, with some services struggling to fill vacancies. 

“It is a difficult climate - it is challenging to recruit,” she said. 

“There has been a recent announcement from the Department of Health to increase [third-level] places for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy at an undergraduate level - and we really do welcome this,” she said. 

“But we do have concerns around retaining staff. 

“We are aware of many skilled clinicians with years of clinical experience who have left disability services… due to some of those issues that we’ve raised.” 

A doctor with a clipboard. Picture by: Alamy.com

The result of these challenges, Ms Dunphy believes, is a reduced quality of care for children. 

“The reality is that children and families aren’t able to access services in a timely manner,” she said. 

“It does impact on a child in terms of them being enabled and supported to reach their potential.” 

In a statement to Newstalk, the HSE said it was "committed to delivering efficient, high quality services". 

"There is an acknowledged national and international shortage of health and social care professionals with the necessary qualifications and experience," a spokesperson said.

"Despite this challenge the HSE and partner disability organisations have increased the capacity of Children’s Disability Network Teams by 3% from 2022-2023."

Main image: A child in a wheelchair. Picture by: Alamy.com