A third of referrals for Assessments of Need (AON) are “inappropriate”, and “people are being pushed into accessing assessment when they shouldn’t be”, chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) Bernard Gloster told an Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters.
Mr Gloster was referring to situations in which people sought assessment because they required basic educational equipment, or for social welfare entitlements.
An AON assesses the specific educational and health supports required to addressed the needs of a child or young person with a disability.
Under disability legislation introduced in 2005, children are entitled to access the formal AON process within six months of applying.
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In May, the HSE estimated the number of children awaiting an AON for disability or autism services for six months or longer will grow from 15,000 to 25,000 by the end of the year.
Mr Glostertold the committee “we haven’t a hope of being compliant” with the law on assessment of need “the way it currently stands”, and believes the AON “requires reform at multiple levels”.
He also said there is an “increasing danger” that children waiting for an AON will “get lost” in waiting lists.
Mr Gloster said that he is “acutely aware of the serious challenges” to the Children’s Specialist Disability services.
He believes that “exclusive focus” on AONs “would be somewhat misplaced”, and that what people want most is access to supports.
He said he hopes to take “some practical steps” in the coming months including a “single point of entry for referral of children to community services inclusive of primary care, disability and CAMHS”.
Mr Gloster said that legislative reform of the AON should not change the nature of what it is, rather “the basis on which people would access it”.
Mr Gloster said he has “no principled objection” to using private sector resources to speed up wait times for an AON, however is concerned about “people saying they’re qualified to offer a family something when they’re not”.
The Taoiseach had asked him if there was anything that could be done in a private capacity to alleviate the pressure on AONs, he told the committee.
He said that if individual families were provided money to purchase their own AON, “they might be exploited and left open to harm”.
In May the Government signalled that it will change the law to make assessments of needs for disability and autism services quicker to cut waiting lists.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley said the Government would seek to train more therapists, recruit more of them from overseas, and also ensure that existing therapists spent less time on assessments of need and more time delivering therapy services for children with autism and disability.
This plan came amid a 50-hour protest by teenage disability rights activist Cara Darmody which called on the Government to address the large number of children awaiting an assessment for a disability or autism for six months or longer.
Mr Gloster said he has met Cara and her father Mark, and will meet them again in the coming weeks.
