Ms Fiona Kearney:

I thank the committee for inviting FamiliBase to this meeting. Our colleagues from Kinship Care Ireland will go into a bit more detail on the statistics and data available to us on kinship care. I am going to focus on our own experience of working with children, young people and families in kinship care arrangements, particularly in the context of children experiencing hidden harm.

FamiliBase is a community-based organisation providing services in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard. We operate an integrated model of practice or a one-stop-shop which means we have a range of services under one roof that are easily accessible for children, young people and families. We provide an early years and after-school service, youth work programme, arts programmes, intensive family support, counselling, and parenting programmes. We realise that we are very lucky to have all of these services under one roof and we are very integrated in that there is one pathway into the service. A child can enter the service but the whole family can get support. That is what has worked for us as a model in terms of supporting families when there is parental addiction and children are impacted. We call that intensive support.

We also have universal service provision whereby people can drop in for late-night events on Friday night or can use the arts studio but some families need something different. They need more than just a youth work intervention or a counselling session. They need a service that is flexible and that responds to their needs. This is particularly the case for children who are affected by hidden harm. Members of the committee will have heard the term hidden harm, which is the experience of children living with, and affected by, parental problem alcohol and another drug use. The hidden element is the fact that these children are often not known to services because there is a huge fear of reaching out to statutory services. What will Tusla say if children are living with their mammy and their mammy is using drugs? These children are often hidden and doubly disadvantaged because they are not getting access to a lot of the available services. While it is not true of all families, some children do experience harm when they are living in these situations. There is lots of research available now on the social, physical, emotional and developmental impacts on children. One hugely protective factor for children is if there is one parent who does not use substances in a chaotic way at home. Another is a good educational experience or if a child is getting support.

Almost 22 years ago authorities in the UK published a hidden harm report. This was a seminal report in terms of looking at the needs of children because for years the focus within addiction services was on the person who presents for support, the addict. Then we looked at the family and the national family support agencies would look at how to support family members but children were often missing from the picture. Even in the last national drugs strategy there was very little about families. FamiliBase believes that we really need to highlight children in terms of policy and impacts. The greatest prevention is working with children. The hidden harm report highlighted some of the impacts on children. It gathered research on what can happen to children when they are in homes where there is massive addiction and the impact it has on them. Even at that stage, over 22 years ago, kinship care was recognised as vital in supporting children and one of the things that was holding the system up at the time. It was also hidden in that so many grandparents, aunts and older siblings were providing care for children.

In the Irish context, in 2013 we started talking about hidden harm. Tusla and the HSE got together and developed the hidden harm project. This led to the publication in 2019 of the Hidden Harm Strategic Statement and the practice guide, Seeing through Hidden Harm to Brighter Futures. Again, there was a big focus on kinship care. It may not have been called kinship care but the focus was on family involvement, family support, and the role of the extended family. We have been talking about this for a long time but we are not really giving it the value and focus it deserves. We need to start naming kinship care in policy.

In terms of the support that FamiliBase provides to children, young people and families with kinship care arrangements, it is often grandparents, aunts and older siblings who are providing care. The situation can occur by consent between the parent and the extended family who come up with these arrangements themselves or it can happen on the recommendation of Tusla, through a private arrangement. A private arrangement can be challenging because it can be unclear and unsupported at times. Another way for kinship care arrangements to happen is through a formal foster care arrangement. There is so much value in informal kinship care but long term, without supports, it is very challenging for families. That is what we would see in our service. There are challenges economically, with housing and education, as well as psychological challenges. Until we recognise this living arrangement as something that is providing a huge service to the State and to children and families, we are not going to be able to follow that up with services, supports and resources.