Dr. Geoffrey Shannon:

I am happy to answer any further discrete questions. In response to the question about inter-agency cooperation and what models I have examined, to provide insight. I am passionately of the view that co-location is a real solution. I have visited several centres and reviewed several models of inter-agency cooperation. I emphasise throughout the audit report that notification is not communication. There is a tendency among State agencies to feel that if they fill in a form and push it on the problem is solved. There is also a lack of respect for the discrete professions. One sometimes thinks it has greater insight than another. A stand out example was a centre I visited in the Bronx, established to review child abuse where there was someone from the New York Police Department, NYPD, social services, a forensic paediatrician. All of the professionals were working together trying to map a solution for the individual child. What happens too often is that the focus is not on the child, it is on generic services. The ISPCC made the point that the solution is all too often a package. We need to build solutions around children rather than around available services. There needs to be a fundamental review of how agencies cooperate with each other. That is the international trend. There is also an interesting approach in Manchester and London, the multi-agency model where agencies work together on site to find solutions. We need fundamental reform. We have seen A Vision for Change and little change. We need to consider what will open those road blocks. I am happy to feed in to this report the extensive research and insight that I have obtained internationally in two years of conducting the audit report.