AQW 25545/22-27

Mrs Michelle Guy
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 02/04/2025
Answered On Date: 17/04/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail the number of children with disabilities who have Direct Payments listed on their assessed needs.

Answer:

The Belfast HSC Trust has 319 children with disabilities availing of Direct Payments as an outcome of their assessed need.

The Northern HSC Trust has 225 Direct Payments for children who are receiving services from the Children with Disability teams. There are 24 Direct Payments for children who are receiving services from the Family Support and Intervention teams.

The South Eastern HSC Trust currently provides 254 families with Direct Payments to deliver a variety of supports to families with children with severe learning disabilities and or complex medical needs.

The Southern HSC Trust Children with Disabilities Service currently has 439 children listed as receiving or commencing Direct Payments based on their assessed needs.

The Western HSC Trust has 293 children with disabilities who have Direct Payments listed on their assessed needs, and are currently in receipt of same. The Western HSC Trust advise that there may be additional children who are also assessed as needing Direct Payments, but who are currently moving through the administration process. Currently, the Western HSC Trust are unable to quantify this number without a manual trawl of cases, which is not possible within the timescales for response.