Fórsa members working in the provision of Disability Services are invited to attend an important meeting scheduled for Thursday 9th November at 12.30pm.

You can join the meeting here.

The union is inviting members to contribute to the meeting and express their views on the new roadmap for HSE disability services launched on Tuesday 24th October by Ministers Roderic O’Gorman and Anne Rabbitte.

Fórsa has criticised the HSE for failing to engage with stakeholders and issued a non-cooperation instruction to members.

Fórsa national secretary Linda Kelly said: “The roadmap sets out very progressive objectives for children’s disability services that are inclusive and positive.

“However, the simple fact is that most teams do not currently have the staff to be able to deliver what is envisaged in this roadmap. Fórsa has several very serious concerns about some elements of the roadmap, not least due to the ongoing and significant recruitment and retention challenges within CDNTs.

“The experience and knowledge of frontline staff working in CDNTs should not be an afterthought to this process of service improvement. They must be central to delivering solutions to the range of problems within disability services.

“Our members, in addition to service users, parents, families and relevant professional bodies have all been excluded from the development of this roadmap. This is despite repeated efforts to have engagement and consultation by Fórsa and other stakeholder groups,” she said.

Ms Kelly said the union had continued to seek to engage with the employer since a meeting at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in June, but that no further consultation had taken place despite repeated efforts.

She added: “Until such time as these concerns are addressed through meaningful engagement and consultation, Fórsa members in CDNTs have been instructed not to participate in any activity related to the roadmap.”

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