From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth 

Published on 22 May 2024

Last updated on 22 May 2024

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, and Minister of State with special responsibility for Disability Anne Rabbitte will today (May 22nd) meet with disability stakeholders as part of the Action Plan for Disability Services.

Launched in December, the Action Plan aims to grow capacity in specialist disability services as well as reform the model of service delivery with a focus on sustainability.

Today’s stakeholder event will bring together a broad section of service users and delivery partners to discuss how best to implement the Plan and drive its reform agenda to 2026. Representation on the day will come from the Disabled Person’s Organisations, service provider organisations, disability advocacy groups, Health Service Executive, statutory organisations such as the NDA and HIQA as well as Government Departments.

Approximately 80 delegates will attend, to provide the benefit of their experience and expertise in order to help drive delivery of the Action Plan collaboratively and in partnership. The delegates will discuss the implementation of the Plan over the next three years under current service models, but will also explore how a reformed model of service delivery might achieve more service capacity, whilst also ensuring sustainability for service providers into the future.

It is intended that close collaboration with disabled people and delivery partners will continue throughout the implementation of the current plan and into the development its successor plan for the post-2026 period.

The Disability Action Plan was launched in December 2023 and represents the first phase of implementation of the recommendations of the Disability Capacity Review. The plan contains ambitious targets for service expansion, as well as a route for making services more person-centred, in the spirit of the UNCRPD, through strategic innovation and policy reform.

Minister O’Gorman said:

“I am extremely proud to have launched the Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026 within 9 months of the transfer of functions taking place. It is very much my intention that disabled people, as well as our other key delivery partners, will have a voice and role as we move forward in implementing this plan. This event will be the first of many engagements to come as we progress the Action Plan and I look forward to meeting and speaking with delegates today.”

Minister Rabbitte said:

“If there is one thing people with disabilities and their families continue to feed back to me it is that they need better access to services. With this Action Plan we will provide just that, with more funding and more resources to increase service capacity. We also want to give people who use disability services more choice and more control in the services they use. I look forward to hearing from the delegates at this event as we move into the implementation phase of this Action Plan.”

Notes

The Disability Capacity Review to 2032 – A Review of Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements to 2032 was published by Government in July 2021, along with a Framework Action Plan, setting out key areas for attention.

The detailed Action Plan was then developed in late 2021 and early 2022 by an interdepartmental Working Group with officials from the Department of Health, Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Department of Social Protection, Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Health Service Executive.

Their work was informed by an extensive public consultation, in which around 800 people participated. Get further information on the consultation and its results.

The headline service improvements which are planned over the 2024-26 period are as follows.

Children’s Disability Services

• around 600 extra WTE staff for Children’s Disability Network Teams 2024-2026 to address vacant posts, build capacity, deliver timely access to early intervention and multidisciplinary supports, and ensure continuity of services

Adult Multidisciplinary Therapies

• additional 222 posts in specialist adult therapy services
• develop a nationwide network of neuro-rehabilitation services including managed community rehabilitation networks as the community-based specialist tier

Adult Day Services

• on average around 1,200 additional day service places each year to ensure places for school leavers who require them

Personal Assistance and Home Support

• 800,000 additional Personal Assistance hours, and 110,000 additional Home Support hours

Respite Services

• continued expansion of respite services, including alternative residential options

Residential Services

• 500 new community-based residential care places to replace disability care in large institutional and campus-based settings, with a view to ending that form of provision by 2030
• around 900 additional residential care places to tackle unmet needs and ensure supply keeps pace with demographic change
• increase support for people with disabilities to access supported independent living
• provision of supports to live at home, in order to phase out long-term care in a nursing home for younger people with disabilities

Funding of €74m has been provided in 2024 for New Developments which will help support the implementation of the plan. This extra funding will help:

- Create around 100 new Residential placements for children and adults

- Increase provision of Respite services, including use of alternative respite

- Provide new Day Services places for approximately 1,250 people

- Create 125 new therapy assistant positions for children’s services

- Provide an extra 80,000 PA hours and also further Community Neurological supports.