The Government has approved the Heads of the Child and Family 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. The Agency, upon establishment, will assume full statutory responsibility for a range of child and family services currently provided by three separate agencies; namely the HSE, the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board.
Last week,
as part of this ongoing preparatory work, the Government approved, on my recommendation, the appointment of Ms. Norah Gibbons as first Chairperson of the board of the Agency. In preparation for the formal establishment of the new Agency it is my intention to appoint Ms Gibbons as chair of the existing Family Support Agency, one of the constituent bodies to be merged into the Child and Family Agency. In line with the practice established by this Government Ms Gibbons will appear before the Oireachtas Health and Children Committee in advance of her taking up her position. I wish her every success, and I look forward to many positive and productive engagements with her.
I also intend to publicly seek expressions of interest through the “publicjobs” website for remaining members of the Family Support Agency board. The selection of these board members will reflect the enhanced role being given to this Board in overseeing, on an administrative basis, the governance and organisational preparations for the new Agency. The Agency will have a particular role in supporting families and communities. I can assure the Deputy that the new Agency will build on the excellent work undertaken by the Family Support Agency over the last decade, and that a community based approach will form an integral part of the new Child and Family Agency.
Funding of over €23.5 million has been provided to the Family Support Agency (FSA) for 2013. This includes a dedicated provision of over €14 million in respect of the Family Resource Centre Programme in 2013. Under the programme some 106 Family Resource Centres will receive funding from the FSA this year. The FSA, like all other State bodies, has been asked to make savings across all the programmes which it administers. In this context the Family Resource Centres have been asked to focus, in particular, on identifying the scope for greater efficiency and for reduction in the administration and overhead costs associated with the day-to-day running of the centres.
The new Child and Family Agency and the wider transformation of children's services represents one of the largest, and most ambitious, areas of public sector reform embarked upon by this Government. I am confident that these arrangements will provide a robust framework to fully implement the ambitious agenda for children’s service reform.
