Ms Freda McKittrick:

We get referrals from the guardian ad litemservice from time to time. We often discover a child has been in voluntary care for seven, eight or nine years, has set down roots in that location and is part of the community. Then the legislative process begins. We would like that process to be moved further up the child's life. Children need to know where they are going to be and every effort must be made in that regard. I welcome the proposed legislative reform to allow services, particularly the health services, to come to the table. Parents will need addiction and mental health services, and they will need those services in order to address their parenting. It is not just about services for the addiction or for mental health; it is about having access to a mental health and addiction service that will support parents to resume managing the care of their children.

At the same time, there must be access to services to help children recover from whatever experiences they have been through that led to them coming into care and whatever damage has been done by the inevitable separation and loss from their family life, their family home and the breakdown of the family. The process should be time limited and focused and a lot of effort should go in at the early stages. We want these children home with their families, but it must be safe and sustainable to return them. We do not want to see children bouncing in and out of care and then coming back into the system much later, with much more difficult problems that are much more of a challenge for the care system to manage.