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Child Protection

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 July 2012

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Questions (52)

Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

63 Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the position regarding the establishment of the national child care information system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33334/12]

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Written answers

Since taking office last year, it has been evident to me that there is a particular need to improve the quality and accuracy of information available from the HSE in relation to child protection services, together with a need to provide more timely and meaningful information. The introduction of the National Child Care Information System will help to greatly improve performance in this area. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that good progress is being made by the HSE with regard to the introduction of this system. An Invitation to Tender (ITT) was issued in January of this year and responses from potential suppliers were received in March. An NCCIS evaluation team in the HSE has had meetings with all of the suppliers who responded and attended at demonstrations of proposed child care ICT systems and or prototypes. The evaluation team is currently completing its assessment of the tenders and will, on completion, recommend a preferred supplier. This process is expected to be complete in the very near future.

The NCCIS will be the central system supporting Social Work services. As a social work case management system, it will be used to record and store the case history of every child and other clients of the service. Management information will be derived automatically from the case management system. The aim of the NCCIS project is to identify and procure an easy to use technology solution to support this type of case recording and to automatically provide management information. A first step was to develop agreed and consistent definitions and business processes across all social work offices. In this regard, a national standardised business process has been rolled out nationally. This will ensure that definitions used are consistent, for example to ensure the number of recorded referrals relates to individual children and not families. I am confident that the process being led by Gordon Jeyes, the HSE National Director of Children and Families Services will deliver the information needed.

The introduction of the NCCIS is a high priority and will help to significantly improve the level, quality and accessibility of information in respect of Children and Family Services.

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