Wednesday, 13 Feb 2013

Written Answers Nos. 193 - 200

Mental Health Awareness

Questions (193)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

193. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will indicate, arising from her discussions with youth organisations and health service providers, the extent to which the issue of depression affecting young people has been examined; if it has been found possible to identify particular issues that might be addressed with a view to alleviation of the consequences of such depression; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7576/13]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

The prime responsibility for policy in relation to the treatment and support for young people with depression currently lies with the Department of Health. The issue of depression in young people is a complex issue requiring inputs from a wide range of stake-holders including young people, parents, schools, the media, youth organisations and the Primary Care and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services of the Health Service Executive (HSE).

My Department supports the National Youth Health Programme in partnership with the HSE and the National Youth Council of Ireland. The programme's aims are to provide a broad-based, flexible health promotion/education support and training service to youth organisations and to all those working with young people in out-of-school settings. Its work programme is informed by the knowledge and experience of the partners involved and most particularly by the Health Promotion Unit of the HSE and by the National Youth Council of Ireland which is the representative body for some 50 youth organisations in Ireland.

This work is achieved through the development of programmes and interventions specifically for and with youth organisations throughout the country and the provision of training and support for workers and volunteers who implement these programmes. It is covered under the Mindout Mental Health Promotion training and resource pack delivered to youth organisations. The training is based on the resource Mindout which was developed by Health Promotion HSE West and NUI Galway. MindOut is a twelve session mental health programme which takes a positive approach to the promotion of emotional and mental health among young people, looking at the ways they cope ranging from personal coping skills to informal networks of support to professional or voluntary support services. Mindout adopts a universal mental health promotion approach which has strong links with the “Support for all” element of the recent guidelines on Mental Health Promotion for Schools published by the HSE, the Department of Education and Skills and the National Office for Suicide Prevention.

The National Youth Health Programme also offers a Specialist Certificate in Youth Health Promotion. This programme is accredited by NUI Galway and adopts a whole organisational approach to health promotion. It focuses on a holistic model of an individual’s health and mental health and reinforces youth work as a valuable setting for mental health promotion. Actions needed to address this issue obviously extend beyond the remit of my Department. My Department is currently leading the preparation of the new Children and Young People’s Policy Framework which will represent a whole-of-government approach to addressing issue affecting children and young people including their well being.

Question No. 194 answered with Question No. 190.

Youth Unemployment Measures

Questions (195)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

195. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her Department can take any particular initiatives arising from the consequences of youth unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7578/13]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

The Government is committed to creating the environment for a strong economic recovery to support employment creation and jobs growth. Youth unemployment is a particular concern because of the difficulties it poses for young people themselves, their personal development and for social inclusion. The Government has a range of measures in place to tackle youth unemployment and these include initiatives in respect of education, training, job search assistance/work experience and support for job creation.

As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, I have sought to highlight and promote the potential of youth work as part of the continuum of youth employment supports and I welcome the growing recognition in Ireland and across Europe of the potential of youth work services to enhance employability of young people. Each year over 380,000 young people participate in youth work services throughout Ireland. Youth Work and non-formal learning, in its many programmes and activities can offer young people opportunities, including valuable volunteering opportunities, which can aide young people in acquiring new competences and skills and in turn enhance employability and job-readiness.

This is particularly relevant in the case of young people who are otherwise marginalised from traditional services, such as those who are not in education, employment or training, the so called NEETs cohort. Existing youth work services already provide a significant level of engagement with this cohort and have the potential to provide a value-added not readily available from other activation programmes, through provision of outreach, intervention and bridging programmes focused on developing skill-sets and job-readiness. Already a number of Irish youth services have begun piloting innovative community-based programmes focussed on supporting youth employment.

My Department and I will continue to engage with the newly-established National Youth Work Advisory Committee and other Government Departments to explore how such initiatives can be supported as part of the Government’s overall activation programme. Minister Bruton is currently finalising the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs on behalf of the Government and in that context my Department is working closely with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the inclusion in the plan of appropriate actions relating to the contribution of the youth sector in supporting youth employment, including through a greater focus on promoting and supporting volunteering opportunities.

In line with the Ireland’s overall EU Presidency priority theme of ‘Jobs, Stability & Growth’, I have sought to prioritise youth employment during my Presidency of the EU Council of Youth Ministers. The Europe 2020 growth agenda emphasises the need to “develop youth work as a resource to support youth employability” while the current EU Strategy for Youth (2009) contains a key objective to "develop youth work as a resource to support youth employability”.

With this is mind, Ireland’s Youth Presidency Programme includes a priority focus on maximising the potential of youth policy in addressing the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy, in particular with respect to supporting youth employability. Work is underway on draft council conclusions which I hope will be agreed at the EU Council of Youth Ministers meeting in Brussels in May which I will chair. I also plan, as part of the Presidency programme, to host an expert round table event on quality youth work and its contribution to Europe 2020 and youth employment in June of this year.

Child Protection

Questions (196, 197)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

196. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will set out her proposals to enhance the extent of child protection measures throughout the country with particular reference to early intervention in situations of suspected child abuse of a physical and/or sexual nature; the extent to which adequate resources are available to her Department in line with assessments undertaken in this regard by her officials; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7579/13]

Bernard Durkan

Question:

197. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she intends to enhance the procedures to ensure a rapid response to reports and/or suspicions of child abuse; if she has in mind any particular initiatives in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7580/13]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

I propose to take Questions Nos. 196 and 197 together.

The Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children, which I published in 2011, provides clarity and guidance for individuals and organisations in identifying and responding appropriately to child abuse and neglect. It also sets out what organisations that care for or work with children should do to ensure they are safe whilst in the care of the organisation.

Child Welfare and Protection Referrals and Assessment

Once a referral has been made to the HSE Children and Family Services all cases are managed through a standardised business process. All reports of concern for the safety or well-being of a child are handled initially by the Duty/Intake team for the purposes of assessment. All staff receiving such a referral are trained in the duty system and are obliged to treat seriously all child welfare and protection concerns whatever their source. Once a report has been made the screening stage deals with the information reported and preliminary enquiries are concerned with formulating an appropriate response.

Once it is agreed by the Duty Team Leader that it is a correct referral the case is allocated immediately for an Initial Assessment. This is a time limited process to allow the gathering of sufficient information on the needs and risks within a case so that informed decisions and recommendations can be made and actions that will result in better outcomes for children are taken. The duty team leader, together with members of the team, will categorise the information received under the following categories:

- level 1 - child and family must be seen immediately

- level 2 - child and family must be seem within 3 days

- level 3 - child and family must be seem within 7 days

Comprehensive information on the extensive process is available on the HSE website under the Standardised Business Process documentation.

Children and Family Services Change Programme

Currently, HSE Children and Family Services are engaged in a major programme of reform. A major element of the reform programme involves implementing consistent and timely child protection procedures in line with the revised Children First National Guidance, through a single, national, service delivery model, which is in development, and through the introduction of a National Child Care Information System (NCCIS). 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 introduction of the NCCIS is a high priority and will help in the management of social work case management and will significantly improve the level, quality and accessibility of information in respect of Children and Family Services.

Resources

The Deputy will be aware that Children First has operated on the basis of voluntary compliance since it was first published by the then Department of Health and Children in 1999. Significant resources have been put in place to support the implementation of Children First and in the case of the HSE and An Garda Síochána, Children First has formed an integral part of their existing operations and practices. The HSE has provided training, information and advice on the implementation of Children First throughout the HSE, voluntary and community sector. In addition to the existing structures in place to support Children First , significant additional resources have been provided to the HSE over the past few years to increase the number of social workers in the child welfare and protection area. The recruitment of these additional social workers was included in the Ryan Report Implementation Plan, as was the commitment to place Children First on a statutory basis.

Children First Legislation

The Deputy will be aware that I published the Heads of the Children First Bill in April 2012. The purpose of the Bill is to ensure that organisations and professionals who work with children have a statutory responsibility to report reasonable concerns about the abuse or neglect of children in their care to the HSE Child and Family Services. I asked the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children to consider the Heads of the Children First Bill and make recommendations. Following receipt of the Committee’s report, my Department is currently, in preparation of the legislation, considering the recommendations along with the broad range of submissions made, including any need for additional reporting guidance.

New Child and Family Support Agency

The commitment to establish a new Child and Family Support Agency is at the heart of the Government's reform of child and family services. The new Agency will assume responsibility for Children and Family Services, currently provided by the HSE, and the Family Support Agency. It will have a workforce of approximately 4,000 staff, and a combined existing budget of over €590 million. The Agency will be headed by Gordon Jeyes, as the Chief Executive designate, who will be supported by a senior management team.

In order to achieve genuine improvements for children and families, the Agency will have a broader focus than child protection. Prevention, early intervention, family support and therapeutic & care interventions are all key to the provision of integrated multi-disciplinary services for children and families based on identified need. It is my intention that the new Agency will address the persistent issues which have been raised regarding the standardisation of services, communication, coordination and sharing of risk assessment, management and treatment for many of the children and families with the most complex needs. At the same time, the Agency will have a role in supporting families - providing less complex, less intrusive and less expensive responses which have a preventive function. The new Child and Family Support Agency and the wider transformation of children's services represents one of the largest, and most ambitious, areas of public sector of reform embarked upon by this Government.

Question No. 198 answered with Question No. 190.

Child Poverty

Questions (199)

Bernard Durkan

Question:

199. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the degree to which lack of adequate housing and/or poverty is deemed to impact most particularly on children and adolescents; the extent to which it is anticipated such issues can be isolated and resolved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7582/13]

Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

Tackling child poverty is a priority for Government and a goal of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007- 2016, coordinated by the Department of Social Protection. Children are more likely to be poor if they are living in lone parent households with low labour market participation and dependant on income support. The departments of Social Protection, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Education and Skills, are working to deliver a range of measures aimed at getting people back to work.

My Department works closely with the Department of Social Protection in a ‘whole of Government approach’ to tackling poverty in the population. The Department is represented on the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare established by the Minister for Social Protection to examine issues to do with the interactions of the tax and welfare systems so that they provide good incentives for parents to take up and remain in work and thereby contribute to the reduction of poverty and child poverty, in particular.

As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, improving children’s outcomes is my primary objective. The development of the Children and Young People’s Policy Framework as the overarching framework under which policy and services for children and young people will be developed and implemented in the State, is an important initiative for cross departmental collaboration to secure this objective. Early childhood care and education programmes, in particular those that are aimed at low income families, are priorities to enhance children’s opportunities for social and educational development and to support parents undertaking training and participating in employment. The network of 107 family resource centres that are funded by the Family Support Agency, under the remit of my Department have an important role in this regard.

The Programme for Government committed to reviewing the homeless strategy, The Way Home: A Strategy to Address Adult Homelessness in Ireland 2008-2013, and to implementing a housing led approach to homelessness. Work on the review is complete and I understand that my colleague the Minister for Housing & Planning, Jan O Sullivan TD intends to issue a policy statement on homelessness in the near future. That statement will take account of demands on existing housing and will assess how best to continue providing services in a manner consistent with the elimination of existing homelessness and to ensure more effective prevention strategies. I further understand that she will use the opportunity to indicate what she expects from housing authorities and other stakeholders in accelerating progress towards realising the ambition of eliminating long-term homelessness.

With regard to my own responsibility, my priority, as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, is to enhance the role of early intervention and support programmes for the most vulnerable children and their families in the context of the new Child and Family Support Agency. As announced in Budget 2013, the Government committed to an Area-based Approach to Child Poverty Initiative, for which €2.5 million has been provided for in the 2013 Estimates.

This initiative will build on and continue the work of the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) which has supported projects in Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale, co-funded by my Department and Atlantic Philanthropies. These projects involve a range of pilot programmes to improve outcomes in areas such as literacy, speech and language, parenting, health and pro-social behaviour and are currently being evaluated by national and international experts. It is important that we mainstream the learning from these pilot projects so that proven and effective supports for children and families can be delivered right through the country, including through the range of services to be provided by the new Child & Family Support Agency.

The new initiative reflects the Programme for Government commitment to adopt an area based approach to child poverty in co-operation with philanthropic partners, drawing upon best international practice and existing services, to break the cycle of child poverty where it is most deeply entrenched. In line with this commitment, my Department in conjunction with a number of Departments, including the Office of the Tanáiste and the Departments of Social Protection, Environment, Community and Local Government, and Education and Skills will work in 2013 to expand the number of project sites from 3 to 6. The new initiative will not simply be a continuation of the PEIP scheme but will instead seek to implement programmes which have already been evaluated and proven to work in improving outcomes for children and families at risk of disadvantage. It is envisaged that this initiative will be co-funded by a philanthropic organisation and discussions are ongoing to this end. It will not be possible in advance of the completion of these talks to know the final total funding levels including the co-funding component.

Question No. 200 answered with Question No. 190.