A school year looms, Cork children still wait for access to therapists

Children in Cork may be left without therapy as preparations to reopen schools later this month move up a gear.

The principal of St Killian’s Special School on Cork’s Northside, Sue Lenihan, told The Echo that she had been in contact with the Children’s Disability Network Forums (CDNTs) since the therapists had been removed.

“The answer I always get is that the HSE have allocated therapists’ posts specifically to special schools and numbers are given,” she said. “This may be happening in other schools, but St Killian’s has not seen any school-based therapist services since Covid.”

A spokesperson for the parents at St Killian’s told The Echo that without therapists, the children, some of whom need multiple therapies, find it impossible to learn.

“Every child in this school has some sort of extra need,” said the spokesperson. “Some have dyslexia, dyspraxia, some have speech and language issues, and some have autism, and then there can be a combination of a lot of needs.

“A problem that we have is that a lot of the kids need the therapy so they can learn,” said the spokesperson. “Some of them can’t be educated without the interventions: We’re looking for occupational therapy, speech-and-language therapy, psychology, physiotherapy, and play therapy.

“They were there until 2020, when Covid hit; they were never reinstated.

“The question we have now is why is it so complicated to get therapists into St Killian’s? They’re needed; every single day that passes, the children are missing out.

“It’s the Government’s responsibility to have the children educated, we’re obliged to send our children to school, but without the therapists, they’re not able to be educated.

“The teachers and the special-needs assistants (SNAs) are amazing and they do their best, but they’re not qualified to do these specialist therapists that the children need.”

The St Killian’s principal and parents’ association spokesperson were speaking to The Echo following the confirmation by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth that it was “currently engaging with relevant stakeholders to finalise proposals for consideration”.

According to a response to a Dáil question from Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould, however, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, in association with the Children’s Disability Network Team, had submitted a pilot proposal to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) in early June to support children attending special schools in Cork, and this had been forwarded to Cabinet for its consideration.

This response was received by the TD the same day that the Cabinet had held its last meeting, before the summer break.

A query from The Echo to the DCEDIY yielded a response from the department suggesting that the proposal was still being finalised and had yet to be considered by the Government.

“[DCEDIY] is currently engaging with relevant stakeholders on this matter to finalise proposals for consideration,” a spokesperson said.

Mr Gould said this response was “another instance of kicking the can down the road”.

A spokesperson for the parents’ association at St Killian’s said they had travelled to Dublin to meet Minister for State Anne Rabbitte in November and that she had assured them that they could avail of up to €150,000 to hire private therapists to support the school.

“She basically told us she had a huge unspent budget and told us to go and source a private practitioner that would be able to provide services to the school, the spokes-person said.

“We left thinking that this is amazing, we should be able to make a statement before Christmas to say to the parents that the services are going to be back in the school, but it just kept pushing on and on.

“The cost of it is about €150,000 for the year, but, going by the unspent budget that Minister Rabbitte has, that’s less than 2% of the unspent budget.

“It’s really frustrating that we have to fight to try and get the therapists, and all parents in the school have contacted TDs to try to get this in place, but it hasn’t worked.

“We’re just wondering why is it taking so long, why is it so complicated just to get the therapists back?. We have a private practitioner who’s ready to go, we just need the money.

“You can try and source a private practitioner and, sometimes, the services are there but the books are closed.

“Even if you can source a private practitioner, the cost is about €100 for a therapy lasting 45 minutes.

“That’s a huge amount of money to be forking out. What we need is a multi-disciplinary team who are all tied in and working together to make the child’s education the best it can be.”

The St Killian’s principal, Sue Lenihan, reinforced the statement of the parents’ association spokesperson in an email.

“We were advised that we should source a private provider and submit a proposal,” said Ms Lenihan. “This was done promptly, as we were advised that it could be quickly sorted. Since then, there have been numerous contacts with the department on this matter and, as yet, no confirmation of the grant to our school has been received.”

She also said there had been “exceptional support from local government and TDs to our school on this matter”.

Among those to raise the issue in the Dáil was Mr Gould.

“These are vulnerable children who have no access to therapies in schools since 2020,” said the TD. “The schools have a plan. The HSE have a plan.

“Why was this not signed off at Cabinet? It will now be September before a decision is made.

“This means we will see children return to school with still no therapists in place.

“The failing of children with disabilities is a scandal.

“These children are missing out on chances to develop and thrive, the schools are doing their best, and I know that they are a huge support to parents and children, but the reality is that the model of special schools includes therapists.”

The latest delay comes two years after Ms Rabbitte announced that the HSE had commenced a process “to reinstate the health and social care supports in special schools where they previously had been provided”.

“Having listened to the ongoing concerns of parents of children with complex needs who attend special schools, and mindful of this government’s priority to deliver comprehensive on-site health and social supports to special schools, the HSE was requested to commence the process of allocating further staffing resources to these schools,” Ms Rabbitte said in September, 2022.

The minister said that this would entail the provision of an additional 136 whole-time equivalent posts in 2022, on top of 85 re-instated posts that had been already announced in 2021. She said that she had also provided for 290 posts in the budgets for 2021 and 2022.

Mr Gould said that these statements from 2022 underlined that stakeholders should have been consulted before now.

“Why is it taking until now to engage with stakeholders?” he asked. “This should have been done two years ago.”

He also pointed to the lack of other options for parents of children with special needs as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in the Cork/Kerry region was facing severe difficulties in recruiting for posts in speech and language and occupational therapy, as well as other mental-health specialisms.