Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 November 2018
12. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the new role of family resource centres under the auspices of Tusla in providing services to families and children experiencing homelessness; the guidelines for the centres; the extra resources being made available to them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45726/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Minister knows, we still have almost 4,000 children experiencing homelessness in emergency accommodation, with perhaps thousands more in insecure and unsuitable accommodation. The Minister told me earlier this year that we now have 120 family resource centres operating across the country with a budget of approximately €14 million. Does the Minister intend to give increased allocations to some or all of the centres in order to provide some services for families and children experiencing homelessness?
Tusla has an important role to play with a number of elements of Rebuilding Ireland, the national Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. As the Deputy knows, these include a number of areas where family resource centres, part-funded by Tusla, have a role to play, such as enhanced liaison on family support, child welfare and child protection, practical supports for daily family life and practical supports and advice for good nutrition for those without access to cooking facilities. Tusla is committed to helping provide spaces where homeless children and families can avail of services in a safe, warm, welcoming space and where they feel comfortable and respected. Family resource centres provide facilities where children can do their homework, relax, receive nutritious food, avail of laundry facilities and Wi-Fi and receive family support services and any other relevant supports.
Services using this model have been put in place in a number of family resource centres, including in Mulhuddart, Ballyfermot and Ballymun.
Tusla homeless family support services are also engaging with a number of other family resource centres which may be in a position to offer similar enhanced services. Tusla will extend this service across the greater Dublin area in 2019. Furthermore, as an interim measure, it has established an evening service to support homeless families at the Focus Ireland coffee shop. It has also appointed a homeless liaison officer to facilitate the planning, co-ordination and integration of services with other relevant agencies. I have been informed by Tusla that, where enhanced services as referred to are to be rolled out to family resource centres, they will be underpinned by a service level agreement.
I am pleased to be able to confirm that I have secured €33 million for additional investment in Tusla in 2019, bringing the total annual budget for it to €786 million next year. The additional funding includes €6 million for new developments and other priorities, including further development of family resource centres.
That €6 million is welcome, but people are still unclear on the exact role family resource centres will play. Are the new services only for those families in hubs or will the supports be available to all those in hotel rooms, guest houses and bed and breakfast accommodation? The constituency I represent and that represented by the Minister are among those that have the highest numbers on housing and homeless lists in the country. Are the new services targeted at those centres?
I know that there have been some changes recently to the Focus Ireland placement service. I was in contact with its director, Mike Allen, who told me that changes in how families were booked into homeless accommodation had taken place. For example, I mention the Focus Ireland evening coffee service which is part funded by Tusla. Will the regional housing executive co-ordinate these efforts in the additional services being provided?
Is this not still a very piecemeal approach the Minister is adopting to providing essential services for families and children? We seem to be operating on an ad hoc basis. As the Minister knows, we have the scandal where a vast number of children are homeless, some of whom have been in unsuitable accommodation for more than two years. How exactly will the guidelines for family resource centres operate?
In the time available to me I will deal with two of the issues raised, including the final question about the piecemeal approach being adopted. In the past it was piecemeal, but we are trying to make it less so by focusing on the provision of supports for families within the hubs the Deputy identified. Tusla can provide services and operate in that context, but it also provides other supports where it has a liaison officer, but I am specifically talking about trying to bring forward some additional services in order that the approach will be less piecemeal and that services will be provided in more than one place in hubs and family resource centres.
On the issue of additional investment, we have allocated additional resources for family resource centres in 2019. There will be engagement with each of the original 109 Tusla family resource centres to determine the best way to allocate much of the funding, but in addition I will request that some of the money be used to provide additional supports for homeless families, especially in Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Cork, to build on the approach developed in 2018.
Children can suffer mental health difficulties because of the unsettling and distressful nature of being in emergency homeless accommodation. We recently received the National Women's Council of Ireland report, Out of Silence, which referred to the high rate of suicide among girls in this country compared to the rates in other EU member states. Will mental health supports be made available to complement the services family resource centres can provide? Given the waiting lists in child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and for mental health services generally, is the Minister liaising with community centres in areas in which the homeless figures are high and which have not yet been designated as family resource centres to also involve them? Again, my constituency and that of the Minister are probably exemplars of areas where such supports are necessary.
I am always so pleased to be asked a question about concerns about the mental health of children and the services required because I acknowledge that there are not enough such services provided. Tusla has to provide some of them, but other Departments also have to be called on. Some of my biggest concerns are in this area. I share them with the Deputy and others. On family resource centres, in some places Tusla is bringing together teams, particularly as part of a therapeutic approach, to offer the services the Deputy has identified. That is one way for us to move forward.
On access to and waiting lists in CAMHS and other services, GPs refer patients to CAMHS. If it cannot take care of a patient, Tusla often provides private therapeutic support for individual children and families because of the lack of services elsewhere.
