Mary Lou McDonald
Question:17. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will provide an update in her plans to place Children First on a statutory footing. [7309/13]
View answerChild Protection
Questions (17)
Written answers
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. The Government has committed, as a priority, to the introduction of legislation to underpin Children First.
The Deputy will be aware that I published the Heads of the Children First Bill in April 2012. The purpose of publishing the Heads was to allow for a full consultation at an early stage in the developing the Bill. I asked the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children to consider the Heads of the Children First Bill and make recommendations. I received their comprehensive Report in July 2012 and my Department has examined the broad range of submissions to, and recommendations of the Joint Committee. Among the many issues examined by the Committee were:
- The inclusion of emotional abuse
- Inclusion of childminders as a named individual
- Problems associated with appointment of a volunteer as a designated person including that it could deter people from volunteering
- Concern about complexity and additional responsibilities placed on the Designated Officer
- Issues surrounding identification of an 'organisational unit ' where the organisation is part of, or affiliated to, or federated to, a national organisation
- concern that legislation focused on reporting where this was not found to be the main problem in reviews of child abuse and child death cases
- Capacity of HSE to implement legislation
- Inclusion of reporting of retrospective abuse
Submissions were not all in agreement and many points emerging need to be considered and reconciled. This involves consideration of both policy and operational issues as well as the best legal approach to achieving Children First objectives. It is my intention to ensure consideration of these complex issues is completed and revised proposals are submitted to Government as soon as possible with a view to the drafting of the Children First Bill as a priority.
Aftercare Services
Questions (18)
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:18. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has fully considered the report of the National Director for Children and Family Services on the aftercare provision; if she will provide the opposition spokespersons with a copy of the report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7314/13]
View answerWritten answers
The Deputy will be aware that I am currently examining options, in association with the Attorney General, to strengthen legislation regarding the provision of aftercare. This matter is currently being progressed in my Department.
The Deputy will also be aware that the HSE has provided information on aftercare to my Department, to guide the development of policy to underpin the strengthening of legislation for services in this important area. The HSE responded to my Department at the end of November in relation to the key findings of the National Implementation Group and provided information on the current provision of aftercare, assessment of need, multi-agency working and the HSE policy regarding Section 5 of the Child Care Act 1991, which provides that the HSE must take all reasonable steps to make suitable accommodation available to a child who is in need of accommodation. The response of the HSE provides an important update on the significant progress in developing aftercare supports, the development of greater consistency nationally and the challenges in making supports available to individual young people, including the need for multi-agency cooperation and the need to take account of the views of those leaving care who, ultimately as young adults must wish to avail of the aftercare arrangements being made available. I have arranged for my officials to forward a copy of this response to the Deputy today.
The annual spend on aftercare in 2012 was €17 million. There are currently 42.2 whole time equivalent aftercare workers in the HSE. In addition, the HSE commissions aftercare services from Focus Ireland, Don Bosco and Cross Care. The most recent information available indicates that there are 1,387 young people in aftercare, the majority of whom are aged 18-19 years. Since November, I have received additional information regarding young people who were in foster care and I was advised by the HSE that approximately 640 young people aged 18 and over are living with their foster carers and are being supported financially by the HSE. A further 110 of the young people in aftercare are living in supported lodgings. Supported Lodgings are provided to young people in care and in need of accommodation and support aged between 16 and 18 years, who cannot live at home but are not yet ready to live independently. Supported Lodgings is a term used to describe when a young person lives with an adult or family in a domestic home and is provided with accommodation, care and support appropriate to their age and needs. Persons providing this service are fully assessed and monitored.
The HSE National Aftercare Service which is underpinned by a National Policy and Procedures Document, commits to promoting and achieving the best outcomes for young people leaving care and in ensuring consistency of support to these young people. An intra-agency National Aftercare Implementation Group, comprised of NGO groups representing aftercare, child advocacy, foster care and other groups, was established by the HSE to monitor progress in implementing the national policy.
The HSE has reported on the key findings of the National Implementation Group's review of aftercare provision. The review has shown that there is now a more systematic approach to ensuring that young people around age sixteen are identified through the care planning review process for assessment and through care planning. A standardised aftercare planning template is now being utilised nationally and this approach is helping to identify young people with special needs, such as learning disabilities, earlier and has led to good examples of interagency working. There have also been improvements in the statistical information available with additional new data being provided. While an aftercare service is provided across all areas, variations in how this is delivered and the level of aftercare allowances have been highlighted by the Group.
The National Policy and Procedures Document sets out the eligibility criteria for an aftercare service. The care planning review process identifies young people as they approach 16 years and a process of assessment commences at that point, in conjunction with the wishes and views of the young person. Each individual's strengths and need for support is assessed across a number of areas, including whether they will continue to live with foster carers for a number of years after reaching age 18. The assessment also looks at life skills and capacity to live independently in the short and longer term; relationships with family, carers and significant others; emotional and behavioural development; health and overall wellbeing; identity and very importantly, educational/training requirements.
Given the particular difficulties some young people experience in areas of mental health and disability, the aftercare policy has a strong multi-agency dimension, which is particularly important in the context of the HSE Children and Family Services' transition to the Child and Family Support Agency. Protocols are being developed with Social Inclusion, Disability Services, Mental Health Services and Primary Care to support this approach. A protocol has been signed with the Irish Youth Justice Service which covers joint working arrangements for young people in Detention Schools. In addition, a protocol with the Housing Authorities which will set out a clear framework for identifying quality aftercare accommodation and commit local authorities to consider the needs of young care leavers is in the final stages of preparation.
Clearly, there have been improvements in the delivery of aftercare service and the issue is under ongoing active consideration by the National Implementation Group. My officials will continue to engage with the HSE to ensure that the service is addressing the needs of these vulnerable young people.
Child Support Payments
Questions (19)
Michael McGrath
Question:19. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she supports subsidised childcare over benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7348/13]
View answerWritten answers
The balance between providing support to parents through child benefit and other income supports, or through subsidised childcare services, is a matter for the Government to decide in the context of budgetary discussions.
My Department currently provides support to low-income parents to assist them with the cost of childcare through the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) and Childcare Education and Training Support (CETS) programmes. The CCS programme is available to qualifying parents in some 950 community childcare services and costs in the region of €40 million per annum. The CETS programme is available to qualifying FAS trainees and VEC students in some 1,600 community and commercial services across the country. In addition, my Department implements the universal free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, at a cost of €175 million per annum.
A new School Age Childcare initiative was announced in Budget 2013 as part of a packet of measures to support children and families. It will be implemented as a joint venture by my Department and the Department of Social Protection. Under the initiative, over 6,000 after school childcare places will be made available for children of parents availing of employment opportunities. My Department has been given a full year allocation of €14 million to provide for the scheme which is expected to be piloted in the coming months and fully rolled out in September 2013.
I believe there is significant international evidence of the benefits for children's outcomes of the provision of quality education and childcare in the earliest years. Childcare services also make an important economic contribution through direct employment of staff in service delivery and through support for labour participation on the part of working parents.
Underage Drinking
Questions (20)
Michael Moynihan
Question:20. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the role her Department is playing is discouraging underage drinking; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7346/13]
View answerWritten answers
The prime responsibility for policy in the prevention and treatment of harm from the abuse of Alcohol lies with the Department of Health, which published the Steering Group Report on a National Substance Misuse Strategy in February, 2012 to provide an integrated response to the misuse of alcohol and other substances.
The report contains a range of recommendations to, among other things, reduce the consumption of alcohol in general. The recommendations are grouped under five pillars of Supply Reduction (availability), Prevention, Treatment, Rehabilitation and Research. The Report contains a range of recommendations which impact directly and indirectly on the problem of excessive youth alcohol consumption. My Department is represented on the National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol which involves a number of Government Departments and key stake-holders who are working to develop integrated approaches to tackle this important issue.
My Department is responsible for a number of youth programmes which support the development of children and young people, including the development of alcohol and drug policies in youth settings. These programmes include the Youth Service Grant Scheme and the Young People's Facilities and Services Fund in particular but also include programmes which support a range of youth work organisations. This work will continue to be developed throughout all youth organisations under the National Quality Standards Framework for Youth Work which was launched in July 2010 and through the new Youth Policy Strategy which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
In addition, my Department and the Health Promotion Unit of the Health Service Executive (HSE) are working in partnership with the National Youth Council of Ireland in implementing the National Youth Health Programme. The objective of the partnership is to provide a broad based, flexible health promotion/education support and training service, including making healthy choices in relation to alcohol, to youth organisations and those working with young people in non-formal education settings.
Bullying of Children
Questions (21)
Timmy Dooley
Question:21. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to tackle bullying; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7320/13]
View answerWritten answers
As Minister for Children & Youth Affairs I am concerned about the impact bullying can have on our children and young people, on their confidence, learning outcomes, self-esteem and mental health. The effects of bullying can last for years, and tragically bullying has contributed to the loss of young lives. My Department’s report on the State of the Nation’s Children: Ireland 2012 found that on average, 27.3% of children reported being bullied at school at least once in the past couple of months. I am committed to working with colleagues in Government to ensure that integrated policy and service responses to combat bullying and reverse these trends are high on our agenda.
On January 28 of this year along with my colleague Minister Quinn I launched the Action Plan on Bullying, a report produced by a working group which examined the issue of bullying in schools. As the first plan of its kind, the Action Plan on Bullying aims to address the serious impact of bullying on our children and young people. The publication of this plan is an important step in the Government’s absolute commitment to working with a broad base of interests to protect children and ensure a safer childhood. The working group has reviewed evidence based research on bullying, consulted with leading academics in the field of bullying and reviewed the current best practices in bullying prevention in other jurisdictions.
The Plan recommends a range of evidence based actions together with a timetable for their implementation to help us deal more effectively with bullying. My Department will continue to work closely with the Department of Education and Skills, and the Implementation Group being established by that Department, to oversee the implementation of the plan. My Department will ensure that actions recommended by the Anti-Bullying Working Group are prioritised in the Children and Young People’s Policy Framework to be published later this year. This will be a cross-Governmental strategy for children and young people and I expect that it will further assist in promoting a common approach to the challenge of combating bullying.
My Department will work with the Department of Education and Skills in the development of an anti-bullying website, as recommended in the plan, to provide a single point of access to practical advice for parents, children and teachers to support them in tackling and reporting bullying behaviours, including cyberbullying. In recognising the lead role of schools in tackling bullying and their need for support and guidance, I have asked my officials to engage with the Department of Education and Skills and the education partners to explore any clarifications to the Children First Guidelines that may be required to further assist schools.
My Department is committed to the fight against bullying and we will work with other Departments, childcare services, education welfare services and the youth sector to raise awareness about bullying, its impact on children and young people and the measures to be taken to tackle prejudice, combat bullying and promote a safer environment for our young people.
Child and Family Agency Establishment
Questions (22)
Brian Stanley
Question:22. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will outline the intended make up of the board of the Child and Family Support Agency; if she will confirm that a representative from the family resource centres will have full board membership; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7304/13]
View answerWritten answers
The Government has approved the Heads of the Child and Family Support Agency Bill and has also agreed to the priority drafting of this Bill. The necessary legislative and organisational preparations are being prioritised so that the Agency can be established as soon as possible. From its establishment the Child and Family Support Agency will have service responsibility for a range of services, including child welfare and protection services currently operated by the HSE; domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services. The functions of the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board will transfer into the Child and Family Support Agency upon its establishment.
The Government's consideration of these matters was informed, by the content and recommendations of the Report of the Task Force on the Child and Family Support Agency which I published in July 2012. The Task Force considered that the Agency needs to be as broadly based as possible and should include a range of prevention, early intervention, family support and therapeutic care interventions.
It is my intention that the agency will have a role in supporting families and communities. It will have the benefit in this role of 106 Family Resource Centres which have been developed across the country with funding from the Family Support Agency. The new Agency will build on the excellent work undertaken by the Family Support Agency over the last decade, and a community based approach will form an integral part of the new Child and Family Support Agency.
The composition of the Board of the Child and Family Support Agency is currently under consideration. The composition of the Board will reflect the broad ranging nature of the Agency's responsibilities. In line with best corporate governance, the criteria for Board membership will be focused on ensuring that Board members have the requisite mix of experience and competencies needed to steer such a large organisation providing a diverse range of personal services.
Departmental Strategies
Questions (23)
Clare Daly
Question:23. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to develop strategies that improve self-esteem and promote positive body imaging among young adolescents. [7273/13]
View answerWritten answers
Self esteem and body image are key concerns for young people. The "Report of a Survey on Young People's Body Image" which I launched in 2012, marked an important milestone in giving young people a voice on this very important issue for them. This survey was carried out directly on foot of a key recommendation from Dáil na nÓg 2010, a representative forum for young people which is overseen by my Department.
At the Dáil na nÓg 2010 assembly, the delegates considered the importance of body image to teenagers' mental health. Noting the lack of national data on teenagers' body image, they decided that this was an issue worth researching. The survey was completed by 2,156 young people and gives new insights into how teenagers perceive themselves in an area of critical importance to their mental health. The Survey found that body image is a burning issue for young people in Ireland with 77% of participants ranking body image as important to them. 57% of the young people surveyed expressed some level of satisfaction with their body image which means 43% were dissatisfied.
The promotion of self esteem and a positive body image in young people is a complex issue requiring inputs from a wide range of stake-holders including parents, schools, the media, commercial organisations and the Health Service Executive (HSE) through its Health Promotion Programmes. My Department supports the National Youth Health Programme which is a partnership between my Department, the National Youth Council of Ireland and the HSE. The programme aims 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.
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 support for workers and volunteers who implement these programmes. The issue of self esteem and body image is addressed as part of a holistic approach to health. 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, 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 youth work as a valuable setting for health promotion. Further actions naturally extend beyond the remit of my Department. My Department is currently leading the preparation of a new Children and Young People's Policy Framework which will represent a whole of Government approach to addressing issues affecting children and young people including their well-being.
Departmental Strategies
Questions (24)
Michael Colreavy
Question:24. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made by her Department in the preparation of a Children and Young Person Policy Framework; when she expects that the drafting work will conclude; when she intends publishing the framework; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7311/13]
View answerWritten answers
My Department is developing a new strategy for children and young people. It will build on Our Children - Their Lives, Ireland’s first children’s strategy which was published in 2000 and it will cover the 5-year period from 2013 to 2017.
In keeping with my Department’s responsibilities for children and young people, the new Children and Young People’s Policy Framework is being developed in a holistic way which will comprehend the continuum of the life-course from infancy through to early and middle childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. It will be the overarching Framework under which policy and services for children and young people will be developed and implemented in the State.
The views of a wide range of interests including children themselves will shape the development of the Policy Framework and it will be informed by the following inputs:
- the results of a consultation in 2011, which focussed on children and young people, in which almost 67,000 people throughout the country participated, the analysis of which was published recently;
- a public consultation of the general public conducted during the Summer. Over 1,000 submissions were received as part of that consultation. An analyst contracted by my Department is in the process of analysing these submissions and this process is expected to be completed in April;
- the advice of the National Children’s Advisory Council which represents a range of statutory and non-statutory organisations working with children and young people. The Council will continue to advise my Department on the Framework until a draft is submitted to Government; and
- the views of the National Children’s Strategy Implementation Group which includes nominees of Government departments and State agencies which develop policies and deliver services for children and young people.
My Department is also in the course of meeting with other Government Departments to discuss aspects of the Framework which will impact particularly on their areas of policy responsibility. This process is expected to be completed by the end of next month and, on completion of the analysis of the public consultation, the Policy Framework is expected to be finalised and published in the middle of this year.