Jillian van Turnhout (Independent)
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I join in thanking each of the speakers for their presentations. It is a very welcome day that we are sitting here looking at the general scheme of the aftercare Bill. The action for aftercare groups can be assured of my support. They presented us with very moderate proposals. What they are asking for is fair and I would be supportive of their proposals. We must ensure that the Bill does what we all intend it to do. We must remember the horror and that feeling we had when we were looking at the child death report and channel that into the aftercare Bill that will come before us.

My difficulty is, and I will ask the Department to clarify this, that the Bill reads that there is a statutory duty to provide an aftercare plan but there is no statutory entitlement to aftercare. That is a huge difficulty because we all know that resource constraints will inevitably dictate the scope of implementation in practice, but surely there should be some minimum standards that can be expected. As Ms June Tinsley from Barnardos said, we do not want a meaningless piece of paper. When trying to build trust with young people where a system, a family or somebody has failed them and we are presenting them with a plan it would be a case of then saying that while there is an ideal it will not be possible to implement to that level but that we could negotiate.

Mr. McBride from the Child and Family Agency spoke about the responsibilities outside the Child and Family Agency. Again we saw that in the child death report with regard to the number of agencies involved in a child's life. How do we ensure their co-operation? Is that something we should be examining in the Bill? One of the areas I am concerned about is the reality that many children in care can commit crime and many coming out detention need care and protection. Both cohorts of children and young people exhibit similar recurring issues. They fall on one side of the line or another. This cohort of young people falls into the criminal justice system or into the health system and sometimes it is down to chance in terms of where they are living. Geographical circumstances could push them because it comes down to which professional is dealing with the young person concerned. I wonder if, in the legislation, we can also examine empowering the professionals who work with these people in the agencies to take decisions.

Too often, cases must go through many layers of bureaucracy. The professionals would work within constraints, of course. I do not expect them to get some kind of credit card that can be spent endlessly. In a case involving a separated child, however, a professional needed to go through five layers of management to get one night's emergency accommodation. When dealing with young people, we must rebuild trust by showing that our State cares and will deliver for them.

The young persons' probation division is only meant to deal with 12 to 18 year olds, but it has a policy of dealing with some people of up to 21 years of age. Given the fact that some parts of the State already do this, there is scope for an extension.

The question of eligibility needs grounds must be examined. No professional interest wants the legislation to limit it to dealing with persons who are no older than 17 years and 364 days. That is no one's intention, but I would hate to learn that the legislation had inserted an eligibility criterion that excluded young people. We must consider the flexibility proposed by the Children's Rights Alliance.

It is important to consult young people. Inserting qualifiers to this would not be appropriate.

One question that will be asked is why aftercare should receive investment. There are many demands on children's services. Putting on my devil's advocate hat, what short and long-term benefits do we get from aftercare? There are benefits for individuals, but why should we not invest that money elsewhere in the agency's services? Is aftercare critical or should the Child and Family Agency focus on the youngest cohort? I support aftercare, but we must make choices.