Have Your Say: Help Shape the Future of Disability Services and Supports

Inclusion Ireland wants to bring families together and hear your views to inform the Department of Children Disability and Equality’s thinking on the future of disability services and supports.

The Department of Children, Disability and Equality are developing a vision and strategy for disability services. They are consulting with disabled people and their families to shape this strategy. Disability services include things like children’s disability network teams, day services, short breaks and respite, supported living (residential care), home support, personal assistance, personalised budgets.

We are interested in hearing from parents/guardians of children and parents/guardians/siblings of adults with intellectual disabilities.

We will listen to your lived experience and ask questions about how things could be improved for people with intellectual disabilities.

We will have different ways of hearing your views. Questions will be sent to you in advance to give you time to prepare.

You may choose to join a focus group, or you may prefer to just have a conversation with us 1:1. We will respect your preferences. The group sessions will last 1.5 hours and the 1:1 conversation will be an hour. The focus groups may be online or in person depending on family members preferences.

The focus groups will be based on certain themes or life stages, and we want people to join the groups who have experience in this area. For example, one group will focus on the early years (up to age 12), one group will focus on the age group 12-18, and one group will focus on adulthood (18+)

The early years group will be focused on:
• What you need as a family to support your child with a disability
• Community inclusion-what works and what needs improving.
• Access to services- your experience and what needs to change.

The group aged 12-18 will focus on:
• Options, choices and plans after school.
• Access to services and supports as your child gets older
• Preparing for adulthood- what supports you need as a family

The group for adults will focus on:
• What should good support for your loved one look like?
• What supports need to be in place for housing?
• What needs to improve about services and supports for your loved one.
• What would have made transition to adulthood easier for you as a family?
• What needs to improve about community inclusion?

Inclusion Ireland will be responsible for bringing together your feedback into a report. We will send that report to the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. We will make sure you are happy with how your views are represented in the section of the report you contributed to before we submit it. Officials in the department have committed to feeding back to you about how your views shaped their thinking and their planning for the future of disability services and supports.

Please note: a small stipend will be provided to families who take part as a recognition of your time.

Please let us know if you want to participate and have your voice heard by filling out the below expression of interest. Depending on the level of interest, we may have to shortlist applications, we will let you know about this.

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