Bríd Smith demands urgent plan for special needs services
Bríd Smith spoke on 19 Sep 2024 about failures in special needs provision and called for an urgent, deliverable plan to clear waiting lists, recruit and retain therapists and expand school places. She criticised ministerial statements as platitudes and demanded immediate action on staffing, training places, assessments and supports.
Thanks to campaigners
She thanked campaigners and families in the gallery, naming Greg from Ballymun and his wife Céline, Nicola O'Dea, and Hugo and his dad, and noted Hugo had written to the trade unions asking them to mobilise on special needs. She also quoted councillor Conor Reddy's view that the issue is fundamentally about planning and delivery.
Critique of ministerial statements
She said the minister's speech listed recent announcements - a therapy services announcement in special schools, a national strategy and action plan for lifelong guidance, a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities and the Towards Inclusion programme - but offered no plan to clear backlogs. Smith argued those announcements amount to lip service without concrete steps to remove waiting lists and staff shortages.
Waiting lists and staffing demands
Smith cited specific figures from the speech and debate: about 10,000 waiting for assessment, 110,000 children waiting for therapies and a 30% void in therapists. She pressed for an immediate plan to recruit the 375 extra clinicians the HSC says are needed, to expand university places for therapist training, and to address pay, conditions and housing to retain staff.
Legislation and delivery concerns
She highlighted that a chairperson's bill has been passed but remains unexamined in committee, describing it as "sitting, waiting in some kind of a laboratory" and urged action rather than announcements such as the promised 16 schools in October. The central demand was for planning and delivery - not more platitudes.
Urgency and personal consequences
Smith stressed urgency with a personal case she had raised, describing a parent who suffered violence from a grown child and only obtained respite and care after persistent advocacy. She warned that without an urgent plan many families will continue to suffer and required services will not reach those in need.
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First of all I'd like to thank those in the gallery who've come here today and who consistently campaign for their children and for all of our children, for all of us by the work that they do. I want to congratulate Greg from Ballymun and his Mrs Céline because they have fought like tigers in Finglas and got their son a place when up to the last minute he hadn't got one. Likewise to Nicola O'Dea. I don't think they're here today but nevertheless we have other amazing people here today including Hugo and his dad and Hugo asked me on the way in here, Hugo who has special needs, why will the unions not answer my letters? He has written to the trade unions and asked them to help mobilise demonstrations to force this government to do something about special needs. Fair play to Hugo, well done and I would think you deserve an answer to that question, why do the unions not answer your letter indeed? But I want to approach this from a slightly different angle. You see, Conor Reddy, the councillor who's up there and who led the amazing campaign in Finglas, said to me, Breed, this is about planning and delivery and the more you look at it the more I totally agree with him. Now I know that your speeches are written by civil servants, sometimes my speeches are written by parliamentary assistants, the minister who left her speech is written by a civil servant, but I noticed she said in her speech, I am proud as an educator to see the progress made in schools in the area of special education. I understand and regret that some families and students feel that the system is not working for them, it's not fair that families are put in a position of feeling that they have to fight for the right for education, it is not a feeling, it is an absolute reality and it is reality for hundreds and thousands of parents and hundreds and thousands of children and when she says we are all aware of the increased prevalence of disabilities like autism, well it's going to increase and be more prevalent in the future, so we want to see a plan and actually today's contribution from yourself and from the previous minister who's left doesn't give us a plan, she says three things that jumped out, one, that there's a recent announcement relating to the provision of therapy services in special schools, two, that there's a national strategy and action plan for lifelong guidance so that people can make better choice about their education and three, that there's a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities and four, she speaks about the towards inclusion programme, brilliant, delighted, great, she doesn't tell us how you are going to clear the waiting list of how many is it, 10,000 who are waiting for assessment of special needs, how you are going to engage the, how many, I have to lose me, let me come to that, how you are going to engage the 375 extra clinicians that the HSC that the HSC says we need in order to clear that waiting list for assessment and leave, not a word about that, nor do we hear, as Richard pointed out, there are 110,000 children waiting for therapies and there's a 30% overall void in the number of therapists available, you didn't tell us about how you are going to do that, neither did you tell us about how you are going to increase the spaces in university to train new therapists for the future, that's in our motion, all of these things about have a plan, an immediate plan to get the 375 extra clinicians in, an immediate plan to increase the therapy places in university, an immediate plan to employ therapists and retain them, look at their work, their pay, their conditions, can they access housing, why are they leaving jobs if we can recruit them, how can we hold on to them, that is the plan we need to see, otherwise it's lip service and I know you're not going to oppose this, the government have not put forward a counter motion or an amendment or any of that stuff, so there'll be no vote on this, there'll be no controversy, who could vote against this, you'd be out of your skull to vote against this, so you're not going to, but what are you going to do about it, what are you going to do about the chairperson's bill that was passed and that is sitting, waiting in some kind of a laboratory for the committees to look at and never gets looked at, how are you going to deal with these things, and that's what we needed to hear today was planning and delivery, no more platitudes, no more oil, it's great and we've done this and this, we're going to announce 16 schools in October and we're working with the Minister for Education with this, great, lovely, but what we really need is a plan to deal with this as a matter of urgency, and urgency because we daily come across people, and I've recently written to you about one, and she has had a huge amount of help since I wrote, but she came to me when I was a young counsellor looking for services for her child, he is now a big, strong man who beats her up, and she needed respite and she needed care for him, now she's getting it, but had she not been screaming, I'm almost killed, and me screaming at you, she would still be out there suffering, we need an urgent plan.
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