Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for attending and making their presentations. I also thank them for the broad overview of their work. There are different approaches, but what emerges in common is that the pilot projects use services which are already available in communities. It was not just about what was being done but how it was being done. That is what has changed. We talk a great deal about inter-agency work, but I would like to tease out the difficulties which must be acknowledged. There are countless examples of people trying to do good things in particular pockets of communities. Mr. Mark Candon is perhaps an example of someone like this. However, these examples are very much personality driven. They are not matters of policy and will not, perhaps, be replicated elsewhere in the absence of these individuals. It is not good enough that it is left up to a personality. This is about how we deliver services as a state and a recognition that we all have a responsibility in delivering services to children.

My experience before being elected was as a social worker. Working with a family, I was the only professional across the services willing to visit the home. Other services might have a policy to issue two letters for speech and language services or a psychological assessment appointment for a chaotic family with poor literacy skills. The appointments are missed and the child then comes off the list. That issue would have been eradicated if other professionals were willing to come on a home visit with me and carry out an initial assessment. We tried to pilot that approach in Clonmel, but management moved on and in the absence of a policy, the practice stopped. There are professionals throughout the country sitting in offices waiting for people to attend appointments who never arrive. These professionals still get paid. It is a question of how we utilise the services we have available in our communities to best meet the needs of all children. We must acknowledge that while the phrase "inter-agency work" rolls off the tongue, it is hard to achieve. People are worried about giving away responsibility and budgets. We must adopt a service design approach to delivering community services. I would be interested to about the experiences of the delegates and their views on what we could do better to meet the needs of children nationally.