I would like to thank members for the invitation to appear before the Joint Committee on Public Petitions today.
As members will be aware, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office, OCO, is an independent statutory body, which was established in 2004 under the Ombudsman for Children Act 2002. We have two core statutory functions, the first of which is to promote the rights and welfare of children under 18 years of age. The second is to examine and investigate complaints made by or on behalf of children about the administrative actions of public bodies, schools or voluntary hospitals that have, or may have, adversely affected a child.
I will briefly summarise some of the key points from our annual reports over the last three years since 2018. To begin with 2018, as the committee will recall, at that point, 10,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children, were homeless. The housing crisis and child and family homelessness, in particular, was a significant concern for our office in 2018. As in previous years, our team worked directly with families who had difficulty trying to access adequate housing but we also carried out a consultation with children living in family hubs at that time so we could hear directly from them. This took place alongside a review of housing policy, which informed our report on family hubs.
In our 2018 annual report, we called on the Government to recognise housing as a social good and to consider reopening the conversation on the constitutional right to housing. I am delighted to see that is in the 2020 programme for Government. Child and family homelessness remains a huge concern to our office today, with the most recent figures from January 2022 showing that 1,119 families, including more than 2,500 children, are accessing emergency accommodation. That is still far too high.
We believe that the right to housing should be enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann and have called for a commitment to eliminate family homelessness within five years as a first step to eradicating homelessness completely across the nation by 2030, in line with Ireland’s commitment under the Lisbon declaration.
The year 2018 also saw an increase in the number of children making complaints directly to us, which we largely attributed to the fact that our participation and rights education team gained an additional two members. Education was the most complained about issue to our office in that year.
In 2019, our Progress for Children annual report highlighted how through our independent examination and investigation of complaints, we continued to engage constructively with a wide range of public bodies to secure positive outcomes for children. Developments of note that year included how child protection in schools is monitored through the Department of Education inspectorate, and improvements in how Tusla and the HSE fulfil their responsibilities towards children with disabilities in care.
As the committee may be aware, just yesterday, our office published Jack’s Case: One Year On, an update on a previous investigation into how the care of a child with profound disabilities was managed by the two State agencies. While we are satisfied that that child in question is now thriving, we are still concerned that significant gaps remain at policy, funding and operational level to support the rights of children with disabilities to grow up at home with their families. This case clearly highlights the ongoing issues experienced by children with disabilities and their families, and the outstanding improvements that are needed for State bodies to work better together in their interest.
In 2019, we continued to monitor and advise on a wide range of developments in legislation and public policy affecting children, including engaging on the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. While we were disappointed at the 25% allocation rule with regard to places for children whose parents or grandparents attended a specific school, we believe the enactment of this legislation has removed significant barriers some children had faced in accessing a school place, including on the grounds of religion.
Our 2019 annual report also featured 11 case studies of the children we serve to highlight the reality of the issues our office faces. That year also saw us undertake a significant consultation with children in direct provision to hear specifically from them about their views and experiences, which were published in a report called Direct Division.
Education was again the most complained about issue for our office.
In 2020, we called our report Childhood Paused. The Covid-19 pandemic obviously turned life upside for everyone in 2020, particularly children and young people, with schools closed and their routines and normal lives completely disrupted. I will come back to Covid-19 in a moment as a separate piece but we will briefly focus on some of the other issues that came up for our office in 2020.
Complaints remained high that year despite the pandemic but there were fewer complaints than in 2019 as many services were closed. The year 2020 also saw a small increase in the number complaints made directly from children and, once again, the main area of the public service most complained about was education.
New issues that came up in 2020 included remote learning and the digital divide, lack of clarity about State exams, mental impact of restrictions on young people, calculated grades, children in high-risk households who feared bringing Covid-19 home and the impact on children with special educational needs.
The increase in complaints directly from children in 2020 can largely be attributed to educational issues and was an indication of the level of upset among students. It is worth noting today that all the children who contacted the OCO mentioned the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and their peers.
Speculation around the future of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in the summer of 2020 in the wake of the inconclusive general election earlier that year, and suggestions that it would be subsumed into other Departments, were of enormous concern to our office at the time. As we argued then, and it holds true today, we firmly believe this would have led to an abdication of responsibility and accountability in upholding children’s rights, particularly at such an important time. If the pandemic has proven anything, it is that Government needs to mainstream the rights of children and have them at the fore when a crisis hits. There should never again be any doubt about the need for a stand-alone department of children.
Like most organisations, the operations and running of our office was completely changed by Covid-19, with all of our kitchens becoming offices, schoolrooms or both. While it was really disappointing for us not to be able to welcome children into our office during the pandemic, I am extremely proud of how our team adapted to keep our services up and running during that really difficult time.
Turning to the Covid-19 crisis, it would be remiss of me not to use this opportunity to reflect in more detail on the impact of the pandemic on our children and young people.
If we cast our minds back for a moment to the early days of 2020 when the crisis first hit, children were treated almost as pariahs; they were seen as vectors of the disease. Their very presence in public places like supermarkets or shops often caused disdain. Schools were closed, playgrounds were shut, sports and other group activities were cancelled and children’s routines and lives were turned upside down. Life became really hard for those children who were already vulnerable or who relied on support services and-or respite and their families. While we were all told to stay at home, the pandemic highlighted clearly how home is not a safe space for every child, something that was clearly illustrated by the increase in domestic violence incidents in 2020. Incidents of possible abuse that may have been missed, in respect of which there may have been a delay in their being identified or that may have gone undetected are of great concern to me.
During 2021, the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and UNICEF invited ombudspersons and commissioners for children across Europe and Central Asia to conduct a pilot child rights impact assessment, CRIA, about the impact of Covid-19 measures on children’s rights. A CRIA examines the potential impacts that laws, policies, budget decisions, programmes and services may have on children as they are being developed and prior to a decision being made or an action being taken. Our CRIA, which we published on 28 January 2022, focused on the impact of school closures on children’s rights and it showed that the negative impacts of school closures were particularly felt by children with disabilities, children who are homeless, children with mental health issues, children living in direct provision and Traveller and Roma children. The State needs to consider children's rights more fully when making decisions that affect them and to give more attention to special measures needed to mitigate the disproportionate impact that decisions can have on particular groups of children, particularly in emergency situations. I fear we may never fully grasp the impact of this period on our children and young people and urge in the strongest terms that children’s rights are to the forefront of any decisions made about them in any future crisis.
While the Covid-19 pandemic starkly highlighted the ongoing disadvantage experienced by many children in Ireland, it also highlighted the ability of Government and State organisations to adapt, to be innovative and to make decisive change. For the past year, the OCO has been working on A Better Normal, an initiative that seeks a time-limited, cross-departmental Oireachtas joint committee focused on the elimination of child poverty and the eradication of child homelessness within the next five years. There is an opportunity to bring together all the work happening in these areas, to bring a new energy and to put a sharp focus on children. No child in Ireland should live in poverty and no child should be homeless. These problems cannot be divided up across Departments or sections. These are not housing issues, social protection issues or ones for education. These problems have roots in every part of our society and a whole-of-government approach is crucial in solving them.
In October 2020, the OCO published Unmet Needs, a report that highlights our concerns about the serious negative impact that delays in completing assessments of need and providing corresponding services to children, are having on children’s current health and well-being as well as their future development. We met with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in December 2020 to discuss this report. We welcomed the decision of the committee to hold further meetings in relation to this matter, including the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability and the HSE.
In November 2021, the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability indicated that almost 4,000 children were still waiting for an assessment of their needs. This high number was very concerning to us, particularly given the introduction of several measures that were expected to deal with the waiting lists, the allocation of additional financial resources, the establishment of new therapy posts, the implementation of a revised, but controversial, standard operating procedure, SOP, and the reconfiguration of children’s disability network teams. Therefore, in December 2021 we wrote to the Minister of State with special responsibility for disability and the CEO of the HSE to highlight our concerns. We also called for representatives of the HSE to appear before the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to account fully and publicly for ongoing problems with assessments of need and to outline clearly how these problems will be addressed. We expect that this will happen in the coming weeks.
Online safety and digital rights online are important issues for the office and for children in Ireland. During 2021 we engaged with developments regarding the general scheme of the online safety and media regulation Bill 2020. Establishing a regulatory framework for online safety to address the spread and amplification of harmful online content is a significant opportunity to strengthen the protection of children from harmful content online. However, proposals to enumerate categories of harmful content and to establish a systemic complaints scheme rather than to provide for the online safety commissioner to deal with individual complaints is an issue of concern to us. The OCO will continue to monitor and engage with developments relating to this proposed legislation during 2022.
As the committee can see, the OCO is dealing with a wide range of issues ranging from education that affects almost all children, to mental health, poverty and direct provision that impacts smaller, more vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Our office has grown significantly in recent years, jumping from 12 permanent staff in 2016 to 36 today. The skills and expertise now available mean that we can deal with complaints that come in the door in an urgent and efficient manner, while we are also working strategically to raise awareness of children’s rights and to create an Ireland where children can live safe, fulfilling and happy everyday lives.
We are in the process of finalising our report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in advance of Ireland’s review in October 2022. We will also be submitting a children’s report, which includes a survey and consultation with children to the committee. I am in the process of finalising our strategic plan for 2022 to 2024. The priorities for the office over the next three years will be in the areas of mental health, disability and the future of education.
I again thank the committee for the invitation to speak here today. I and my colleagues, Dr. McAuley and Mr. Leonard, will be happy to answer any questions.
