By Eilish O’regan

Copyright independent

It comes amid mounting concern at the backlog of children seeking an assessment of need with over 15,000 on waiting lists in the overwhelmed public system.

An assessment of need is a process undertaken by the HSE to identify the health and education needs of children and young people with a disability.

A tender has now been issued “seeking qualified and experienced service providers to submit a proposal for inclusion on panels for the provision of autism diagnostic assessments for children and adolescents in Ireland.”

HSE chief Bernard Gloster said: “Meeting the increasing demand for assessments of need is challenging and to help address this we are putting in place a bespoke panel arrangement with suitable panel approved providers.

“The panel will be in place for one year with the option to extend for a further year, subject to demand and budget approval. Every effort is being made to have the panel established as soon as possible so that more assessments can be made for the children on the waiting list.”

It is asking Interested service providers “to submit an application if they are confident that they have both the level of capacity and suitably qualified and experienced expertise within their organisation to deliver the number of assessments they are proposing in their submission, in line with the project timeframe.

An assessment report should be completed within six months of the date the application under disability law .

But the HSE has conceded it has struggled to achieve compliance with this timeframe and in the first quarter of this year just 7pc were completed on time.

Referring to the new tender the HSE said :“Successful service providers appointed will be required to provide comprehensive multi-disciplinary autism diagnostic team assessments for children and adolescents that have been referred. The assessments are required to be carried out using a neuro-diverse affirming approach.

“Where an assessment of need is requested under the Disability Act 2005, the service provider will take cognisance of the Independent Assessment of Need – Protocols for Assessors and the Health Information and Quality (Hiqa ) standards, and an assessment of need summary report is required”.

The HSE added that aim of an assessment of need under the Disability Act “is to identify whether a person has a disability, the nature and extent of the disability, any health and education needs arising from that disability, as well as what services are required to meet those needs.

“An assessment of need is not required to access health services -including Primary Care, Children’s Disability Services or Mental Health Services providing services including assessment, goals setting, intervention and follow-up services.”

Many parents have spoken of their distress in the delays to secure an assessment.

They are already having to go private to secure the service knowing that how crucial early intervention is.

Completed assessment of need reports show that the “autism spectrum disorder” category increased from 18pc of all completed assessment reports in 2013 to 36 pc of all completed assessment reports in 2023.