Professor Ursula Kilkelly:

I thank the joint committee. Members have raised a range of issues and I will try to group them together if that is acceptable. On the question of the pathway through care, it is part of the new positioning of Oberstown that the focus is being reasserted onto the individualised care of young people. All young people have an individualised care plan that has been defined recently by a process we are undertaking to map all of that in the facility and then to roll it out through training. This is the model I have mentioned in respect of care, education, health, work on offending behaviour and return home, the CEHOP model. This will inform the development of care plans, that is, both the assessment of individuals as they come in and the rolling out of an individualised care plan, which then will guide the treatment and the care programme the young person will follow while he or she is in the facility.

The Deputy is right to state this is all important in itself but actually it really is all about the effectiveness or the efficacy of what happens in Oberstown for the young person. The participation and involvement of the young people in that process is really important. We must continue to work on that but it also is important in itself that there is proper education and health care in place, in addition to it being something that addresses the likelihood of them re-offending on their return to the community. I will revert to the issue of the return to the community shortly.

The psychiatric dimension in this regard is of critical importance. In Oberstown, we have young people with highly acute needs in that area that we frankly have struggled to address. ACTS is working well and is assessing individually each child, is putting in place and feeding into that individualised care plan and is providing the services and support services needs.

However, the absence of psychiatry from that intervention in the way that we would like it to be delivered is an issue we have been working very hard to address but we are confident we will have that in place soon. This will be a huge step forward in terms of the quality and effectiveness of the care required to meet the acute need of young people in this area. It is important to reflect that the development of a pathway through to care plan is delivered by staff who, as noted, labour under significant burdens in terms of time and resources, but also of training. There is a huge gap in terms of how all of this is delivered with staff, which we are also working actively to address.

On staffing and recruitment, we have a rolling recruitment process in place that has been intensifying and is increasingly becoming more successful. It is a significant challenge for us to attract staff to Oberstown, for a variety of reasons, including that the work is very challenging. It takes a particular person to want to work in a facility that is that challenging. This is the same the world over. We have been working hard to communicate that Oberstown has significant ambition in terms of the quality of care it provides. Making it the type of workplace we want it to be, and professionalising that, is a huge challenge.

In regard to residential social care workers, following the most recent recruitment process 12 people have been panelled, which effectively means that 12 offers are being made. We do not know if the 12 individuals will accept those offers and so on. In that regard, there are issues around salary scale and so on in respect of which we are in communication with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. There are also a further 100 applications in process. We are satisfied that we are doing everything we can. In regard to whether we will get the staff we need in the short time, the answer is that is unlikely. We are undertaking the recruitment with an eye on the need to supplement and support existing staffing levels and on the 45 staff that we technically need to open the three additional units. As stated earlier, we require 15 additional staff per unit. If we do not get the 45 staff - we will not, I believe - the additional three units will not open. Recruitment is a huge challenge for us and a huge priority in which we have invested heavily and we will continue to prioritise it. I will come back later to the issue of training, which is a significant issue, as highlighted by Deputy Ó Caoláin. Recruitment is under way.

The issue of return to the community post-release has traditionally been a neglected part of Oberstown's work for various reasons, including a previously held view that it was not our concern. That is no longer the case. We now see it as integral to the effectiveness of the institution that young people leave and do not return. The point I made about Oberstown not existing in isolation is really important. It is part of the criminal justice community and the community at large. We are currently working with the Probation Service, which takes the lead in respect of post-release support and supervision. We have also engaged with the Youth Advocacy Service and Le Chéile mentoring to try to put in place soft supports that will accompany young people out into the community. The focus of a care plan, in part, is on return to the community and the soft supports required to accompany the young person back into the community. What makes detention problematic is that the process of return is not properly supported. As such, we are conscious of the need to address this issue and are working with our partners on it but it is a challenge in terms of resources and so on.

I have already addressed the point about resourcing. Resources for staffing is not an issue. However, the salary scale issue is one on which we need flexibility if we are to attract the best staff. We need people with experience and we need to make Oberstown as attractive a place as possible for them to work.