Since this Government took office in 1997 it has invested more than £60 million in the development of child care services, including new child and family support services such as specialised fostering and early intervention projects to allow health boards to provide a range of appropriate interventions which will place specialised residential care in an appropriate context. This additional funding has allowed health boards to increase the number of high support and special care places available from 17 in 1996 to a current total of 63 places, which includes a number of individual high support packages.
The Department has approved health board proposals to develop 110 additional high support and special care places nationally. As part of this programme of developments, seven additional places have already been created in the South Eastern Health Board and an additional eight place unit for girls has been opened and is being brought into operation on a phased basis in the Southern Health Board. These developments are included in the current total of 63 places.
Plans are well advanced by health boards to develop other additional places nationally as part of this programme. In the Eastern Regional Health Authority area, the construction of a purpose-built special care unit providing 24 places at Ballydowd, Lucan, commenced in January 1999. It is anticipated that this unit will open in the summer of this year. The development of a 24 bed purpose-built high support unit which will be built at Portrane is at tender stage and it is anticipated that this unit will be ready by autumn 2001.
The Midland Health Board, North Eastern Health Board, North Western Health Board and Western Health Board are co-operating to provide 12 high support places on a single campus. A site has been acquired and a project manager and project group have been put in place to develop the proposal.
Places being developed in the other boards are as follows: twenty high support places and a special care facility with five places for adolescent boys in the Mid-Western Health Board; three high support places in the South Eastern Health Board and five high support places for boys and an additional two places in a special care facility for girls in the Southern Health Board. These places are due to become available during 2000 and 2001.
The senior managers resource group comprising representatives from each of the health boards and the Department was established in October 1998 and continues to meet regularly to monitor the overall development of these services.
I am aware of the matters referred to by the Deputy. While the recent judgment of the High Court concerning these matters is currently being considered by the Department in consultation with the Attorney General's office, the order of the court has not yet been perfected and I do not consider it would be appropriate to make any detailed statement on the comments referred to by the Deputy.
However, more generally, I will make a number of points on the speed at which the programme of development of high support and special care can be undertaken and put in place by health boards. Because of the public perception of these services and some opposition from local communities, I understand from health boards that sourcing suitable sites or premises has been difficult. This also complicates and lengthens the planning process. The current economic climate makes the recruitment of staff difficult and some health boards have had to recruit staff from outside the State.
Against this background considerable progress has been made by health boards in putting this programme of developments in place. However, I am conscious of the need to ensure that all developments are put in place as soon as possible and in line with the target dates set by the boards themselves.
The Deputy will be aware that I recently announced that a new interim body on special residential services for children convicted of committing offences and children who have behavioural problems and are in need of special care and protection, is being set up. This new body will advise the Ministers for Health and Children and Education and Science on co-ordinating the delivery of services and on the development and provision of educational and other programmes in health board special care facilities, and in those facilities run by or under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science, for offending children. The Special Residential Services Board provided for in Part 2 of the Children Bill, 1999, which is currently before the House, will take over the interim body's responsibilities when the Bill becomes law.
The Bill contains a number of important measures for non-offending children who are in need of special care or protection. These include Part 3 which empowers health boards to apply to the courts for special care orders to detain non-offending children in need of special care or protection, and Part 2 which introduces the Family Welfare Conference on a statutory basis for the first time.
