Ms Michele Clarke:

I thank the Chairman. His question on whether we are helping children who come into care and how they can live their lives afterwards is important. The reports we hear about tend to be when something has gone wrong. We are gathering information to look at the overall welfare of children at the end. Some 55% of children over 18 who were in care are continuing in education and training and 45% continue to live with their former foster carers as young adults in care. Our stability rates for children in placements are much better than our neighbours in the UK. It is a crude measure but less than 3% of children have more than three placements in a year whereas the figure in the UK is around 10% and 11%. These are crude measures but they tell us something about the majority of children. It is not to say we should ignore the challenges faced by children who come into care very damaged by their earlier experiences or who have not been able to settle and so have had poor experiences. Those are the children who need therapy, play therapy, counselling and support. Those are the foster care families who need support to hold those children in placements. We are looking at measures in the overall system, while also focusing on the children with particular vulnerabilities.

The Minister, Deputy Zappone, has written to the Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, looking for the two Departments to meet to address the issues regarding the oversight of our engagement with children in care, child protection issues, our engagement with the HSE on its services and how we can prioritise the needs of this particular group of children.