Irish Wheelchair Association looks to address staffing issue

The Irish Wheelchair Association has turned to Cavan-Monaghan ETB in the hope of recruiting more student graduates in an effort to resolve staffing shortages that have forced the organisation to switch to an ‘Outreach only model’ for service users.

The local service provider was among those in attendance at the ETB organised industry morning, which took place last Tuesday, May 21.

Just over a month ago (April 17) the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) announced it was closing its Cavan Day Services Centre at Corlurgan Business Park due to current staffing levels and a lack of resources available. Since then, the service has scheduled community days for participants, home visits, online events and daily phone calls, the latter being difficult as some of the 36 users are non-verbal.

It came a year after the local branch informed that it was at a critical point with service delivery.

The organisation suffered the loss of Community Employment places post Covid, which totalled eight in 2020 and this reduced to zero in 2023.

The service relies heavily too on Section 39 employees [healthcare workers employed by voluntary groups rather than directly by the State). The plight of the IWA in Cavan has highlighted, once again, the growing pay disparity between those employed in the voluntary and public sectors for similar roles.

The meeting with the ETB to try and attract new workers coincides with a planned meeting between the Cavan Monaghan Disability Services Manager and the IWA Area Manager, scheduled for this week, the Celt understands.

A public meeting took place at the end of last month, April 30, at the Hotel Kilmore, which was attended by families of those accessing IWA Services in Cavan, their families, members of the public, IWA management, TDs, county councillors, and the HSE Cavan Monaghan Disability Services Manager.

The latter informed the meeting of the significant workforce challenges facing a range of sectors at the present time, which is also being experienced in Day Services in this locality.

It was stated that the same set of challenges are being experienced in services delivered also by the HSE and by other service providers.

As of now the Cavan Monaghan Disability Services Manger remains in weekly contact with the IWA Area Manager regarding progress with IWA recruitment in Cavan.

A set of strategies have been priortised by the IWA Area Manager for Cavan to its national HR Department.

These include the use of agency staff as a short-term interim measure and the extension of a rolling recruitment campaign to target workers across the Border.