Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 October 2020
462. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration the extent to which adequate reporting facilities are available in respect of children at risk; if augmentation of such services is required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31665/20]
View answerTusla, the Child and Family Agency, implemented a national information system, the National Childcare Information System (NCCIS) in 2018. This system has improved the quality, safety, responsiveness and delivery of child protection services by supporting social workers in their practice, and capturing critical data on children who are the subject of a child protection or welfare referral. This information service allows for the provision of a timely, robust and effective information that captures details of screening, preliminary enquiries, assessments (initial or other) and case notes. As part of the implementation of the NCCIS the IT equipment for staff was upgraded and made fit for purpose.
Managers at local, area, regional and national level can now access real time data on the management of referrals and open cases, and can indemnify, at an early stage anomalies in service delivery.
Tusla has a Data and Analytics team and a Quality and Assurance Team. These teams produces monthly, quarterly and annual reports in respect of Tusla's functions, including detailed reporting on child safety and protection services. These reports are published on Tusla's website. Tusla also reports regularly on children in care, their placement type, care status, allocation of social workers and other relevant areas. These reports are reviewed by Officials and inform performance oversight including staffing and resource challenges. Officials from my Department meet Tusla management on a regular basis to review the level of service provision, including areas in need of improvement. The reports are also available to HIQA to inform their monitoring responsibilities.
Tusla have also introduced an online data hub where other agencies, researchers and the public can access aggregated non-personal information that Tusla produces. Tusla's Quality and Assurance team and their Data and Analytics team look at the metrics being produced, the work underway in Tusla and continually explore additional options for expanding or improving reporting.
