Sir, – The recent High Court ruling that the HSE's assessment of need process for children falls short of what is required under the Disability Act sadly seems to have been met mostly with complete indifference by the Department of Health and the Minister for Health ("HSE process to assess children's needs not compliant with disability law, court finds", News, March 11th).
The deeply flawed HSE assessment system was only highlighted by parents bringing legal cases, with the Department of Health and successive ministers for health appearing to have effectively outsourced oversight of the HSE’s provision of disability services to parents. In a further breach of the Disability Act, the HSE has also not submitted a report on the needs of children with disabilities to the Minister since 2014.
In the aftermath of the court decision, the Department of Health made the extraordinary statement that this was “an operational matter for the HSE”. The current Minister for Health has yet to comment on the High Court decision, while in an disappointingly weak intervention, the Minister of State for Disability stated she “will be seeking an urgent meeting with the HSE”.
No details were given as to when this was likely to occur or what use this would be to parents who are currently taking legal challenges or the (no doubt many) who will be forced to take cases due to the still continuing failure of the HSE to deliver child disability services.
Parents and indeed the taxpayer are entitled to ask what they are getting in return for the recent large pay increases given to the HSE director general and the Department of Health secretary general. The indifference with which the Department of Health greeted the ruling suggests any change will once again need to be led by parents of children with special needs. As things stand, the HSE appears to be able to simply ignore the Disability Act with zero consequences.
While the HSE is primarily responsible for disability service provision, ultimately children with special needs are being failed by senior management in the Department of Health and successive health ministers who fail to hold them to account.
The HSE should not be used by Ministers and the Department of Health as a vehicle to evade responsibility for failing to provide adequate disability services.
A paternalistic attitude whereby child disability services, rather than being seen as a right, are seen as an act of charity for which users should be grateful for still seems to be prevalent amongst senior officials in the Department of Health and the HSE. Children with special needs are entitled to participate fully in society and the Disability Act is a means of ensuring this occurs.
The consequences for non-compliance with the Act should be severe and certainly should merit more than a meeting at some point in the future. If the Minister for Health and the Minister of State for Disability are serious about child disability services, the HSE director general should have been brought in to provide an immediate explanation following the High Court decision.
It is increasingly clear that a senior disability minister is required. This minister will need to take a far more robust approach with both Department of Health and HSE senior management. Politicians and Department of Health senior management owe it to children with special needs to hold HSE executive management to account. If the HSE cannot provide services, we need to look at removing responsibility for child disability service provision from this organisation entirely. The current outsourcing of oversight of the HSE by the Department of Health to parents of children with special needs needs to end.– Yours, etc,
RUARY MARTIN,
Sandyford,
Dublin 18.