I propose to take Questions Nos. 1, 5, 11, 25, 28, 35 and 162 together.
Seventeen sections of the Child Care Act have been commenced to date, including most of the preventative and service-delivery provisions contained in Part II of the legislation. The provisions that are now in force apply to children up to the age of 18 years. The remaining 52 sections of the Act will be brought into operation by the end of 1996 in acordance with the timescale determined by the Government. I want to emphasise that this is the shortest possible period within which the legislation in its entirety can be implemented having regard to the scale of the infrastructure required to underpin the legislation.
As part of a structured programme for the implementation of the Act, priority is being accorded to the commencement of Parts III, IV, V and VI which deal respectively with the protection of children in emergencies, care proceedings and the duties and powers of health boards in relation to children in their care. These provisions will greatly strengthen the powers of the courts, the health boards and the gardaí to intervene effectively in relation to child abuse. The need for the early implementation of these key provisions was underlined in the report of the Kilkenny incest investigation. When this has been achieved, arrangements will then be made for the implementation of the other outstanding provisions, including Part VII, which deals with the supervision of pre-school services, and Part VIII, which deals with the registration of children's residential centres.
There is no need for me to remind the House of the fact that, for the Act to be effective, it must be properly resourced. It is absolutely essential that the necessary services, facilities and staffing required to underpin the legislation are put in place; otherwise it will fail the vulnerable children and families it is intended to assist. This Government will not be found wanting in that regard. Since we came into office, unprecedented levels of funding have been made available for the development of child care and family support services which will enable the health boards to carry out their various statutory responsibilities under the Act.
In 1993 a sum of £5 million was provided for new service developments in the child care area. The important new initiatives funded from this allocation include: more than 100 new posts of social worker and child care worker; Three new consultant staffed child and adolescent psychiatric services; 20 new posts in child psychology; the expansion of the home maker and home help services; the establishment of community mothers programmes in a number of health boards; increased financial support for pre-school services in disadvantaged areas, and 30 additional hostel places for homeless children.
This year an additional £15 million is available for child care. This will meet the full year costs of the various initiatives begun in 1993 and will enable a further round of new service developments to be launched during this year. The child care policy unit of my Department is currently finalising proposals for a package of major developments in each health board area. I intend to announce details of these developments in the next week.
These allocations represent the largest ever investment of resources in the child care area and demonstrate my determination, and that of my colleagues in Government, to ensure that this Act is not simply implemented on paper, but that there is a real and tangible improvement in the level and quality of services and supports to assist children and families in need.
Some of the provisions require new regulations to give full effect to them. In this context, I might mention that two working groups have been established under the aegis of the child care policy unit of my Department to prepare the initial drafts of the new foster care and residential care regulations. These groups include representatives of the health boards and the relevant interest groups as well as of my Department, and their work will help to expedite the competition of the preparatory work that has to be undertaken before the next segment of the legislation can be brought into operation.
In the development of services in the child welfare area, particular emphasis is being placed on strengthening the community based child protection teams. These multi-disciplinary teams play a key role in the identification, investigation and management of suspected cases of child abuse. I am committed to increasing the number of social workers, child care workers, child psychologists and other specialist professional staff in the community in order to enhance the capacity of the health boards to intervene effectively on behalf of children who are in need of care and protection.
I have already referred to the substantial number of new posts which I approved in 1993; I shall shortly be announcing the creation of a significant number of further posts.
As regards the detailed arrangements for pursuing allegations of child abuse, the procedures followed by the health boards are in accordance with the guidelines issued by my Department in 1987. All the boards are taking steps to improve existing arrangements for the reporting and management of child abuse, with particular importance being attached to co-operation and co-ordination between the hospital and community care services of each health board. This is being done in response to a recommendation in the report of the Kilkenny incest investigation.
The detailed information sought by Deputies Durkan and Dukes is not readily available in my Department However, in recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of suspected cases of child abuse, particularly sexual abuse, reported to health boards. The boards now deal with some 4,000 new cases of child abuse annually. For example, in the latest year for which full details are available — the number of reports was more than 3,800 of which some 1,500 cases were confirmed, including more than 500 cases of child sexual abuse.
Considerable progress has been made in the last 12 months in building up child care and family support services and in strengthening the capacity of the health services to respond to the needs of deprived children, particularly those who are not receiving adequate care and protection. At the same time, I accept that much more remains to be done in this area. It is my firm intention that the momentum of the past 12 months will be sustained and that all necessary arrangements will be put in place to ensure, in so far as is humanly possible, that children are protected from abuse.
