Dr. Helen Buckley:

My submission concerns the capacity of the Child and Family Agency now and in the future to cope with the demands being made on it. I will provide some data to show it is already under considerable strain and I will propose some alternative strategies that might relieve the pressure that is threatening its effectiveness. I have appeared before this committee previously and made oral and written submissions in 2012, outlining my response to the heads of Bill of the Children First legislation. My main concern then was the impact that the proposed legislation would have on the capacity of services to respond to the demands likely to be made of it. I expressed this in the knowledge that the majority of cases referred to the services were already considered to be below the threshold for receipt of services. I am sure the members are aware that the cases that my colleagues are discussing, namely, those cases that go through the courts, are a small minority of the referrals made to the Child and Family Agency each year, many of which concern situations that could be ameliorated if intervention were available. I am glad to note that following the report issued by this committee, the Children First Bill 2014 has significantly modified the reporting requirements that were proposed and it has strengthened inter-agency responsibilities which is very advantageous but I continue to have concerns about the capacity of the service.

I am sure the committee is aware of recent statistics indicating that in the third quarter of 2014 almost 9,500 children were awaiting allocation of a social worker by the Child and Family Agency and 3,000 of these children were regarded as being at risk. The volume of non-allocated cases and those on waiting lists has been steadily increasing year on year. It is not getting any better. The Minister, Deputy Reilly, recently made a statement to the effect that all children on waiting lists are reviewed, but I am sure the members will agree that the potential for accurate risk assessment in such pressurised circumstances is extremely compromised. It is unrealistic to assume that all of the urgent cases are receiving a response.

Based on calculations presented by the agency, at this point more than 200 social workers, on top of those it already employs, would be required to make any impression on current waiting lists, and the increase that would be triggered when the Children First legislation is implemented is likely to multiply this figure such that it will become out of all proportion to what which currently exists.

However, even if the resources were available and the agency was able to recruit adequate and suitably qualified numbers of staff, the question must be asked as to whether we really want a massive and all-encompassing statutory child protection service. Experience in other countries has indicated that expanding statutory social work services to meet existing child protection demands has resulted in congested systems which are a nightmare to administer and which ultimately become unsafe. I have used the analogy before with this committee of a crammed casualty department where patients have bypassed primary care services in the community to go straight to hospital, making it very difficult for staff to discern those who are most acutely ill. We know from research that most families are fearful of the child protection service - my colleague, Dr. Coulter, has reinforced this point - finding it to be hostile, stigmatising and intimidating. Do we want a situation where more and more families are dragged into this system to be either eliminated or left on waiting lists? A more far-reaching solution is required to meet the needs of vulnerable children and free up the services to deal with the most pressing cases.

I must add that I am well aware of the new community-based prevention and partnership initiatives being established by the Child and Family Agency and I commend the developments being undertaken. I hope that they will be adequately resourced and I believe they will provide an excellent service to those families who are able to avail of them. However, the passage through the cluttered child protection system that is required before many of them reach that point is likely to pose obstacles.

At a very basic level, we need better statistical information with regard to who is referring children to the agency, what the principal issues are and precisely what type of intervention is required. There is no interrogation of existing data to enlighten policy makers. Dr. Coulter has been able to determine some very significant patterns in respect of children going through the courts but we have insufficient data about vulnerable children in the community. I am aware that the agency is developing an information project but this is not expected to come on stream until 2017. In the meantime, we can merely try to estimate the source of early problems in families. On the basis of patterns in other jurisdictions, however, we can approximate that most child welfare issues are identified by teachers and child health practitioners. We know that large numbers of adults with children use domestic violence, addiction and mental health services. It stands to reason that locating social work posts dedicated to child welfare at these sites, particularly schools, is likely to more effective than automatically diverting families to the already overstretched agency. A concerted effort to make adult services more aware of the impact of parental issues on children and the co-location of child and family welfare social workers in those services would make sense. Said social workers could then provide both triage and early intervention so that the needs of children would be met and only appropriate cases would be referred on to the Child and Family Agency. What is required, essentially, is a more robust whole-of-government response.

I note that among the provisions in the Children First Bill is one to establish a statutory interdepartmental group. I am disappointed, however, that the lifetime of this group may be limited to the period during which Children First legislation will be implemented. Establishing it on a permanent basis would promote the likelihood of a more forceful engagement. The planned review of the Child Care Act also presents an opportunity to include health and education among the sectors statutorily obliged to promote the welfare of children. At the very least, I would propose the setting up of a fully-staffed child protection and welfare unit in the HSE, which has 70,000 practitioners that are likely to interface with vulnerable children either directly or through their parents. As this committee heard recently, there is currently one post dedicated to child protection in the HSE and that person's role primarily relates to the implementation of the Children First legislation rather than the development of child protection and welfare responses. I am sure members will agree that this utterly inadequate for an organisation with such constant engagement with children who are exposed to parental drug and alcohol use as well as mental health and disability. Dr. Coulter has illustrated the prevalence of these problems in families going through the court system.

I would also propose the establishment of a similar child protection unit in the Department of Education and, ultimately, the creation of social work posts attached to schools, either singly or in groups. Members will be interested to know that evidence from international research on accessible services such as those to which I refer shows them to be extremely effective, with a high take up by service users because of their less stigmatising nature.

I reiterate the point that, on the basis of recent trends and literally short of a miracle, the Child and Family Agency will not be able to cope with the demands being made of it. Importantly, on the basis of evidence from elsewhere, expanding the agency will not improve matters significantly and may in fact make them considerably worse. The only viable solution is to reduce the pressure on the agency. One proposal in this regard is the provision of early intervention, including social work services, to children and families in the sites where their difficulties emerge. Other radical solutions may also be effective and I urge the committee to give the matter serious consideration.