Waiting List Status
July 2010Currently there are over 60 families waiting to access the Early Start service and even though we are funded to provide services to a maximum of 273 families, the demand for our services outstrips our capacity to respond to referrals in a timely manner. Our current rate of entry shows that it will most likely take 4-6 months before those families waiting are enrolled in the Early Start Programme.
Clearly a long waiting time is undesirable since being on the wait list may prevent families from being referred to other more available services. It also means that those families who enter Early Start after a long delay and whose children are now past their infancy by the time they enter Early Start, will not have the opportunity to experience the full benefit of the programme. For those reasons the waiting list will be closed on the 26th of July 2010 and Early Start will not be accepting referrals until there are less than 50 families waiting. All families referred before the 26th of July 2010 will remain on the waiting list and a Family Support Worker will be allocated as soon as a vacancy arises. We anticipate that the waiting list could remain closed for at approximately 6-8 weeks only.
Our receptionist will know the status of our waitlist and we will keep you informed via this website as to when we are open for referrals again.
Closing the waiting list is not an issue of commitment but one of capacity and we regret having to make this decision.