Children with disabilities face support shortages

Children with disabilities face support shortages

Children with disabilities are being left in hospitals, schools, and respite centres because their parents cannot access the adequate support and services they need to care for them at home, according to a new report by the Children’s Ombudsman.

Niall Muldoon said it is difficult to know how many children are affected, because despite the Health Service Executive being urged to compile statistics three years ago, nothing has been done.

The ‘Nowhere to Turn’ report highlights cases where children, some with severe disabilities, are left in inappropriate settings for weeks, or even months, due to the failure of the HSE to provide an adequate range of placement options.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Muldoon said there are some numbers for children in hospitals, but there are no figures for residential settings or in relation to those left behind in schools.

He said his guess is that the number is in the hundreds.

“But that’s one of things we’re really angry about, that three years ago, we asked them to start doing an assessment need to figure out how many children there are. And to frame a strategy and a budget to protect these children.

“And it hasn’t happened.”

Dr Muldoon said parents are working as hard as they can to support their children.

He said in one case a hospital contacted the Ombudsman because they felt the HSE “were dragging their feet about trying to find a sufficient residential centre” for a young boy.

He said parents feel there are in a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ situation as they want to provide for their child, but cannot do without State supports and the State is not providing that support and they feel they have to force the State to intervene by leaving their child somewhere they do not want to.

The Ombudsman said this is having “a huge impact” on children.

“They’re missing out on whatever else is going on in family life, and that’s way beyond what we should be providing for our children in 2023 and their children and their families deserve much more at this point.”

Dr Muldoon said it is extraordinary that children are being left behind in schools.

“How hurtful and sad is it for both the parents and the school themselves?”

He said that school has to call the State agencies if this happens and report that they have a child that needs to be looked after, adding that one school had five children in two years left behind.

Dr Muldoon said there is a commitment from the Department of Children and the Minister for Disability to create a disability action plan this month for the next three years.

“That needs to be implemented with an independent oversight mechanism so that we know these children will not be failed again, and it’s time for the HSE to do something totally different, not just fix the problems that we identified for them. Identify it early and prevent it from happening,” he said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, HSE Chief Operations Officer Damien McCallion said the HSE fully accepted the Ombudsman’s report.

“We fully accepted the Ombudsman’s report and his criticism in terms of the pace at which those recommendations are being implemented. A lot of work has gone on, but it clearly has not been sufficient.”

He said that when the HSE received the draft report in August, it took steps to deal with the recommendations it could respond to more immediately.

Mr McCallion said that regarding acute hospitals where a young child presents with their family, the HSE has put a process in place where they are going to audit all those hospitals next week to try and understand the scale of the issue.

He added that there is a need for more urgent escalation to the senior level in hospitals and community organisations.

“While a lot of work went on in the recommendations it is clear that the pace that was needed was not there over the last number of years. People did work on this during the pandemic, but it is clear from the Ombudsman’s report we have not made the progress we should have.”