The number of family resource centres has expanded from an original ten to 107 nationwide. Funding has increased from some €318,000 in 1994 to €18.047 million in 2009. There are currently five specialist agencies supporting the family resource centres in their work. These agencies are funded by a number of other Departments and the Family Support Agency commissions them to provide services for the FRCs, family resource centres, across a range of areas including disability awareness, Traveller participation and supporting families dealing with domestic violence. There are also seven regional support agencies who work under contract to the Family Support Agency to provide technical support, training and monitoring to FRCs throughout the country on a regional basis. The family resource centre national forum which made a presentation to the committee earlier today, is the representative voice of affiliated family resource centres. The forum provides information, support and networking and training opportunities for its members.
The Family Support Agency also provides funding to voluntary and community organisations providing marriage, relationship, child and bereavement counselling services. The scheme of grants focuses on the development of support services in the community for families to enhance stability in family life and to assist families and their members in dealing with difficult periods which they may experience. Funding is used to help people deal with difficulties they are experiencing in their relationships, to help children whose lives have been affected by parental separation and to support families who have experienced the death of a family member.
The policy objectives which inform funding allocations include the continued financial support of established major providers of services so that they can continue to provide and develop their services; supporting the establishment of a regional network of family support services by investing in locally based service providers in key areas throughout the country; and an emphasis on supporting service providers in disadvantaged communities. Some 600 organisations are funded each year. Funding for the counselling grants scheme in 2009 is €11.864 million. A total of 29 of the larger organisations receive multi-annual funding under the scheme. Each of the 29 organisations is well established and has a proven track record in the specialty of services it provides and is in receipt of funding of at least €60,000 per annum.
The Family Support Agency is responsible for the provision of family mediation to separating couples. Established in 1986, the Family Mediation Service was the first publicly funded family mediation service in Europe. The FMS is a free, professional, confidential service which enables couples, both married and non-married, who have decided to separate or divorce and who together want to negotiate the terms of their separation or divorce with the help of a trained mediator. It assists couples to address the issues on which they need to make decisions including, post-separation living arrangements, finances and parenting arrangements to enable children to have an ongoing relationship with each parent.
The FMS is also available for individuals who have never lived together but may have a child to parent and wish to come to mediation to negotiate parenting and contact arrangements. The FMS can also assist in other family issues such as grandparent access to grandchildren post-separation, and issues between natural parents and foster parents of children in care. The service has been dealing with an increasing number of referrals from the courts. The majority of these referrals are dealing with parenting issues between unmarried parents.
The FMS currently has 16 offices countrywide, 12 of which are part-time offices open to the public two days per week. Some 1,500 couples were assisted in 2008. Funding for the FMS in 2009 is €3.305 million.
A key role for the FMS is to conduct or commission research into matters related to the agency's functions or such other matter as the Minister may request. The agency achieves this through direct commissioning of research and through the research grant programme which awards annual funding to projects providing original research in the field of family policy relevant to the agency. For example, research papers, such as Supporting Child Contact: The Need for Child and Family Contact Centres in Ireland, which research carried out by One Family and funded by the agency; Family Figures: Family Dynamics and Family Types in Ireland, 1986-2006, which is research based on detailed data from the 2006 Census and undertaken by the ESRI; and The Role of Grandparents in Divorced and Separated Families by Dr. Timonen, Trinity College, Dublin. These various research projects are due to be published shortly. Funding for the FSA's research programme in 2009 is €428,000.
The FSA is responsible for promoting and disseminating information about issues in relation to marriage and relationship education, family mediation, parenting and family responsibilities and related matters. This work is often carried out in collaboration with non-governmental organisations. For example, Parenting Positively is a set of nine booklets jointly produced by the Family Support Agency and Barnardos, aimed at supporting parents of children aged six to 12 through a range of parenting challenges. In addition to a booklet on general parenting skills, the series also deals with some of the more complex life issues facing parents, covering themes such as death, separation, domestic abuse and bullying. Building on this series a new website for teenagers, TeenHelp, along with a series of booklets for the parents of teenagers is due to be launched shortly. The agency funded an advertising campaign by Treoir to address misinformation which abounds on the rights of unmarried father’s regarding their children. The budget for the information programme in 2009 is €132,000.
The agency has a total of 41 whole-time equivalent posts including the part-time services of 21 professional mediators and their part-time administrative support staff. The work of the agency is underpinned by the corporate services section, which provides human resources, accounts, payroll and facilities management. Overall administration costs for the agency's headquarters including staff and accommodation will amount to €1.93 million in 2009.
The agency is overseen by a 12-person board consisting of members with experience and expertise in fields such as family mediation, the family resource centre programme, counselling, research and family law. A representative from the Department of Social and Family Affairs is also a member of the board.
The report of the special group on public service numbers and expenditure programmes made a range of recommendations relating to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, including recommendations relating to the Family Support Agency and its programmes. The group recommended that:
The Family Support Agency and most of its programmes be discontinued. However, a proportion of community and voluntary funding should be retained and unified with other State-funded community and voluntary programmes to facilitate more effective targeting of resources and more coherent administration of the various schemes.
The group targets savings of €30 million a year. The Department will consider, as part of the Estimates and budgetary process for 2010, the report's recommendations and decisions on all of the issues arising will be a matter for Government.