Anger over withdrawl of speech and language therapy from St Mary's Special School

Parents informed of decision taken the HSE and Enable Ireland

There has been an angry reaction to the news that speech and language therapy provided in St Mary's Special School in Navan is being withdrawn.

Principal, Maria Corredor has written to parents informing them of the decision by the HSE and Enable Ireland.

“This worries us immensely, as we know how difficult it is for our pupils and indeed for a new therapist to establish a routine,” she said.

Ms Corredor urged parents to speak out for their children.

“Please advocate for your child. Be his/her voice, as by the looks of it the current speech and language therapist will be removed very soon resulting in a completely new, untried, and uncertain approach for the future.

“Our objective and preference is to retain the status quo by having our current SLT therapist retained in St Mary's, which in our opinion will see our pupils progress rather than regress,” she said.

Until now all the children attending St Mary’s Special School were supported by the Network Speech and Language therapist linked to the school address.

“This worked really well as we had an outstanding professional who knew our pupils’ abilities and needs,” said Ms Corredor.

“I am afraid that this situation is no longer the case. We have been informed by the HSE and Enable Ireland that our pupils will receive their clinical services from their home address network team, this includes their speech and language therapy.

“This effectively means that out of 55 pupils receiving Speech and Language therapy in the school only five will continue to receive it here in St Mary's.

RELATED:

“The rest of the children will depend on the plan that the HSE has drawn with each of the families.”

She explained that families are now supported by one of the new children's disability network teams, based on their home address.

There are four Children Disability Network Teams (CDNT) for Meath in Kells, Navan, Dunshaughlin and Trim.

“Needless to say, St Mary’s Board of Management and I have been fighting this on your behalf as we know how important the service of a speech and language therapy is for the vast majority of our pupils.

“So far, the HSE has not offered a robust plan to guarantee the continuity of approach and service for our pupils to facilitate their transition,” she said.

"No assessments have been done, no interventions have been planned to our knowledge and understanding .

"We have tried very hard to hold on to our current speech and language therapist but as of now to no avail," said Ms Corredor in her letter to parents.

A spokesperson for the HSE said the Meath Disability manager and the four Children’s Disability Network managers are actively engaged with the principal of St Mary’s Special school in Navan.

"A meeting is planned to take place with the principal following her return from the Easter school holidays," she said.