Targeted reforms to improve the Assessment of Need (AON) process for children and their families have been announced.
Legislation will be required to introduce the reforms which Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley acknowledged would take time.
Minister Foley said the reforms will lead to a faster and more efficient way of carrying out AON reports, instead of “tying up therapists’ time unnecessarily”.
Assessment officers will be supported by eleven new teams comprising 44 experts who will provide clinical guidance and support during the AON process.
Each team will include a psychologist, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist, and an administrator.
She said the aim is to provide a faster more efficient process. Identifying the need at an early point in a child’s life is required, Minister Foley added.
The changes will not remove any rights for parents to apply for an AON for their children, and they will not alter the statutory six-month timeline set out in the Disability Act.
It will also remain the case that an AON is not required to access health services.
Legislation will make process faster, say Department
The Department has said the legislation will make the process faster, ensuring children to not receive unnecessary assessments or tests and that it will help children to receive “a timelier report that identifies their needs and the services required to meet those needs”.
Asked how much faster the process will be, Minister Foley pointed out that pre-legislative scrutiny was required but the current length it was taking – including 30 hours in some cases – was too long.
However, she acknowledged that each child needed to be treated individually as no child’s needs are the same.
Minister Foley also noted that the Department of Education will shortly agree a new process to remove requirements for professional reports such as AON reports, from entry requirements for special schools and special classes.
This process is unlikely to be introduced until September 2027.
An Autism Assessment and Intervention Protocol which will be launched in February, to provide parents with a faster route than the AON route of getting an autism diagnosis for their children.
Opposition call for specific date for AON compliance
Opposition parties have jointly called on the government to set a specific target date for compliance with the state’s legal obligations to provide an assessment of needs within six months.
They are also calling for an urgent workforce plan to recruit, train and retain enough staff to deliver a service that will not breach of children’s rights.
This evening the Dáil will debate a joint opposition motion on the matter in a move supported by Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, Independent Ireland, People Before Profit, Aontú and the Green Party.
She is calling for an immediate emergency national recruitment campaign to find therapists and psychologists into services.
“This is a national disgrace, I asked the government a couple of months ago, multiple asks and they gave me every single ask except for one, which they gave partially, on a national recruitment campaign.”
Ms Darmody said the Government had made a mess of the campaign as nobody was aware of it.
On today’s announcement from the coalition, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said his party would scrutinise it but he said they were mindful that people were let down previously as the High Court had struck down a previous initiative,
“The Government is breaking the law, not once but thousands and thousands of times and it’s getting worse.”