Ms Deirdre O'Shea:

We carried out a six months review and the referral rate continued to be high. They were continuing to implement the strategies. We were of the view that there needs to be continued monitoring of the capacity of the service to be able to respond to the referral rate. The general referral rate for child protection and welfare services is an issue of concern. The referral rate level is not specific to north Lee but our investigation was specifically related to north Lee.

In terms of the meta-analysis, I was asked about the inter-agency co-operation. We were particularly concerned about the liaison between social work departments and the child and adolescent mental health services. We saw the difficulties that children experience in accessing some of the services. There is a need for improved communication, a proactive response and liaison across the agencies in planning for children in care. There were situations in which the children in care were placed outside of their local area and there was difficulty in accessing the child and adolescent mental health services in the area in which they were placed. During the course of our investigations of the ten cases - but it did not occur in all of them, but it was a feature in a number of cases - the issues were resolved but there was a need for improved inter-agency co-operation in working with mental health services. Another difficulty for children in care is accessing educational services, particularly when they are moving placements, as they can then experience difficulties in accessing education and gaining the support they require in education.

The implementation of Children First was an issue in one of our investigations. During the course of the investigation it was confirmed that Children First was being implemented but that was in late 2012. We had concerns about the implementation of Children First when we concluded that investigation in 2010.