More than 750 children in Cork were overdue for a needs assessment

More than 750 children in Cork were due for a needs assessment under the Disability Act 2005 by the end of March this year.

The figures have led to calls for intervention to tackle the backlog, with Cork Kerry Community Healthcare saying it has brought in private providers who can provide additional assessments.

An Assessment of Needs (AON) is a two-stage statutory process carried out by the HSE to identify the health and educational needs of children with disabilities.

At the end of the first quarter of the year, there were 765 children overdue to complete AONs across the four Cork Local Health Office areas within the Cork Kerry Community Health Organization (CHO) region.

In Cork North Lee LHO, 388 children were delayed in completing their exams on March 31.

That figure was higher than the combined total number of children, 377, who completed their assessments late in the three other Cork LHOs.

Cork North had the second highest number of children awaiting completion of their AONs, 192, while Cork South Lee had 161 and Cork West 24.

Expired

The HSE defines stage 1 of the process as “an initial desktop assessment that determines the type of assessment each child needs”, while the AON “begins in stage 2, when the assessment officer arranges the clinical assessment”.

The first phase of the process must be completed within three months, with three months also allowed for the second phase.

Of the 765 children who completed their AONs late in Cork in the first quarter of this year, the HSE said 22 cases were late due to “exceptional circumstances”, but in 743 cases the HSE said there were no exceptional circumstances that caused the delay.

A total of 81 children waited less than a month, while 105 children waited between one and three months, and 579 children waited longer than three months to complete their AON.

The largest number of children waiting more than three months to complete their assessment, 297, were in Cork North Lee LHO at the end of March.

In Cork, there were 31 children who were late with Stage 2 of their AONs in the first quarter of this year, with nine being less than a month late, nine one to three months late and 13 more than three months late.

The largest number of children waiting for stage 2 of their assessment, 18, were in the Cork North Lee LHO.

New applications

The HSE received 332 new AON applications in Cork in the first three months of 2024, up from 262 in the last quarter of 2023.

In the first quarter, 220 reports were completed in Cork LHOs, of which 42 children, or 20%, were deemed not to have a disability, and 178 were found to have a disability under the law.

Nationally, the HSE completed 849 AON reports in the first three months of this year, and a review of the reports shows that 339 children, or 40%, were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, while 188, or 22%, an autism spectrum disorder was diagnosed. no disability.

A further 181 children, or 21%, were diagnosed with ‘multiple’ disabilities, while 89 children, or 11%, were considered to have no category specified at this stage.

Other categories represented included mental health, intellectual and specific learning disabilities.

‘HSE fails to meet challenges’

Pádraig O’Sullivan, Fianna Fáil TD for Cork North-Central, said it was clear to him that the HSE was failing to meet the challenges.

“Significant additional investment has been made in 2021 to address the backlogs that existed at the time, and I believe it is appropriate that such an intervention is reconsidered to keep pace with demand for assessments,” he said O’Sullivan.

Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD for Cork North-Central, said more action is needed, saying: “The state has a legal obligation to provide children with a needs assessment within the timeline set out in the legislation. That is not a goal, it is a requirement.”

He said it is “distressing to hear stories of parents and families being forced to fight tooth and nail for the most basic rights of their children.”

A spokesperson for the HSE in Cork and Kerry said they regretted that each child was waiting three months for an AON.

“Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has worked with private providers who can provide additional clinical assessments,” the spokesperson said.

“This will help address the current delays at AON.”

The spokesperson noted that the AON process does not provide any access to intervention.

They also noted that individuals do not need an AON to access HSE services and people can apply directly for services outside the AON process.