Disability services for Cork children 'all but shut down' due to staff shortages
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A 46% staff vacancy rate in children’s disability services in Cork suburbs has left services for vulnerable children “all but shut down”.
According to HSE figures, 146 children with additional needs are still awaiting first contact from the Children’s Disability Network Team for the Douglas, Blackrock, Mahon, and Passage West areas.
Rebecca O’Riordan of the disability advocacy group FUSS, and a mother of a child with additional needs in Cork, said 46% vacancy levels were quite standard.
“Services have all but shut down,” she said.
“The situation is dire but there is just no urgency in addressing it.”
HSE correspondence seen by the told Ms O’Riordan the State was unable to provide her daughter with the support that would enable her to progress and flourish for many reasons, including recruitment and retention issues and heavy caseloads.
There was no physiotherapist in a Cork City and suburbs disability team where 3.6 full-time equivalent physiotherapists were needed.
No applications were made for a dietician post for one year in that same Cork team, despite advertising it in Ireland and internationally.
Staff in community and voluntary sector organisations, contracted by the HSE to provide vital disability and other care services, are due to vote on strike action on September 4 following the collapse of pay talks.
Disputes over pay for the sectors have been grinding on for years, with these Section 39 workers saying they are paid significantly less than their HSE-employed, public sector colleagues carrying out the same or similar roles.
This pay disparity has helped fuel the current recruitment and retention crisis which has left some services in near-paralysis, workers say.
“It really is loaves and the fishes because even if these teams were fully staffed, the staff-to-family ratios make it impossible to provide a safe and effective service,” Ms O’Riordan said.
A meeting of the South East Cork City Family Forum last month for Children’s Disability Network Team (CDNT) 11, which covers the Douglas, Blackrock, Mahon, Passage West areas, heard the area faced “additional challenges” in staff allocation, coupled with a growing caseload when the HSE’s Progressing Disability Services reorganisation of disability services was introduced.
The area was predicted to receive about 455 patients, with staff allocated accordingly. But demand on services was much higher, with 634 patients now in CDNT 11.
CDNT 11 also covers four special schools — School of the Divine Child, St Mary’s, Scoil Aislinn, and Rochestown Community Special School, which is due to open this September.
Although funding was recently granted to recruit 4.43 full-time staff positions to increase services in these schools, these positions have not all yet been filled, the meeting heard.
“It’s absolutely heart-shattering to see parents faced with uncertainty for their children as the school year recommences,” Peter Horgan, Labour local area representative in Cork, said.
“There is promise after promise from Government but this is the reality parents now face, with therapists not in place and classes not able to function. We need to see action from the senior ministers on this and this week, not when the Dáil resumes.”
The Department of Children and Disability said funding was available for 136 additional posts to reinstate health and social care supports in special schools.
The HSE is operating in a very competitive global market for healthcare talent as there are significant shortages of qualified healthcare professionals across the globe, a statement from the department said.
The HSE’s Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said Enable Ireland continually runs recruitment campaigns to fill vacant posts, however, the shortage of clinical staff nationally is currently a challenge.