Ms June Tinsley:

We warmly welcome the committee's invitation to discuss the heads of the aftercare Bill. Barnardos is delighted to be here with colleagues from Action for Aftercare, a coalition made up of a range of organisations and individuals who are concerned about the needs of care leavers. The group consists of a mix of service providers and advocates. The main organisations include Barnardos, the Children’s Rights Alliance, Empowering People in Care, EPIC, and Focus Ireland.

Individually and collectively we have been lobbying for improvements to aftercare for all care leavers. Through our experiences of working with care leavers we know that some are particularly vulnerable, and turning 18 can be a time of huge uncertainty and unpreparedness. Depending on the type and duration of their care experience, they often have a less secure network of family and friends to help them with this transition into adulthood. That is why the State, as the corporate parent, must ensure that sufficient supports, such as personal or financial supports, are available to them to ease this transition, just as any other parent would.

Action for Aftercare has been monitoring and feeding into the policy developments and legislative debates on aftercare in recent years. Thankfully, some positive strides have been made, including the HSE leaving and aftercare services national policy and procedures document 2011 and more recently the implementation plan to accompany the roll-out of this policy. The ongoing commitment of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to strengthen entitlement to aftercare is much appreciated. Despite these advances, however, the provision of services and supports remains inconsistent across the country.

Overall, we broadly welcome this Bill and believe it is a significant step forward. Therefore, to minimise any duplication, we have decided to concentrate on different themes in our presentations. I will examine the different eligibility criteria being proposed, EPIC will discuss strengthening the assessment process, Children's Rights Alliance will highlight the need for a rights-based approach to the legislation and Focus Ireland will outline the challenges currently facing care leavers.

The legislation must synchronise with the HSE leaving and aftercare services national policy and procedures. There must be common language used in both to ensure that professionals across a range of sectors have a shared understanding. The HSE policy emphasises the process involved in preparing for leaving care as well as aftercare. Therefore, the Bill and the regulations flowing from it must also adopt this holistic perspective, based on the idea that preparation is not a once-off event but a process that takes time and commitment. Allowing for sufficient preparation for leaving care is vital to ensuring an easier transition to independent living for these young people.

With regard to head No. 1 of the Bill, Barnardos recommends that the legislation should provide a clear definition of aftercare to ensure that all professionals engaged with young people have the same understanding. Generally, Barnardos agrees with the definition of "eligible child" and "eligible young person" as proposed in the Bill. The categories recognise the diverse and inconsistent care patterns that exist for some children. These definitions are broader than those that apply in the HSE leaving and aftercare services policy and we welcome that. The policy and legislation need to be synchronised.

We would like, however, to make some recommendations to strengthen the eligibility criteria so that it is not too blunt an instrument, thereby excluding those particularly vulnerable young people who do require an aftercare plan and further supports just because they do not fit a clear definition. First, young people up to the age of 25 are under the remit of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The forthcoming national children and young people’s policy framework will outline actions and supports for all, up to age 25 years. Barnardos would like to see this age range translated into this legislation, rather than a ceasing of engagement with care leavers at 21. Extending the age range would mean that young people up to the age of 25 would be entitled to an aftercare plan. This is also in line with some international standards.

Second, from the categories proposed, it is unclear whether those children who are in the care system under section 5 of the Child Care Act 1991 are included in the Bill. This is particularly relevant for those aged 17 years who would not meet the 12-month criteria yet are often at high risk of continued homelessness. Third, the Bill does not include those who choose not to engage at 18 and do not present to the agency later. Instead, it places a duty on these care leavers to present themselves to the agency.

Given how vulnerable and disempowered this group of young people can be, Barnardos believes there should be a legal obligation on the agency to attempt to re-engage them after they leave care. This could include getting aftercare staff to follow up with them at three-month intervals within their first year of leaving care to encourage the young person to re-engage as proposed in the HSE policy.

Fourth, those young people who have experienced the care system but who end their childhood in detention centres should also be entitled to an aftercare plan. Finally, it is important that the Bill allow for exceptional circumstances, so that other young people who do not fit the specified eligibility criteria but who have been in care and who in the assessment of the agency require an aftercare plan are entitled to one. This could include, for example, young people who are adopted following a care placement where this subsequently breaks down.

Before handing over to my colleagues, I reiterate the broad support of Barnardos for this legislation. Nevertheless, aspects of it can be improved to ensure it is driven by the desire to meet the needs of care leavers, and we are concerned that in the absence of an effective monitoring framework and increased availability of resources across a range of sectors, a young person’s aftercare plan will become a meaningless piece of paper and the individual will fail to make a successful transition to independent living.