Mr. Terry Dignan:

I will answer the questions posed by Deputy Buckley by referring to the issue raised by Deputy Eugene Murphy concerning children in care. I will restrict my answer to children in care.

Deputy Eugene Murphy asked whether we were happy where we were. From our perspective, as an organisation that works with children in care, we recognise that progress has been made, but the honest answer is "No". As long as children in care are over-represented in the criminal justice system and homelessness and addiction services and as long as children in care become parents and have children who end up in care, we cannot say we are where we want to be.

Reference was made to Nicola Sturgeon. She has ordered a review of the entire Scottish care system which we view as being further ahead than ours in terms of initiatives. Ms Sturgeon sees herself as the corporate Mammy. For children in care, all of whom do not have parents or a family to fall back on, we need a system that is child focused and centred. Under the current system, for children who leave care to receive support or an aftercare service, they have to engage in continuing training or education. Where children have had a fractured second level education, with multiple placements, it is very difficult for them to make a decision to move straight into third level education and training because there is no provision for them to take time out when they would be fully supported in considering what they want to do in their lives. They are forced to make quick decisions when often they do not have the information required to choose what it is they want to do. As long as these structures stay in place, we will end up continuing the cycle of having children in care being over-represented in all of the areas about which we have talked and they will potentially become the parents of children who will be placed in care because of their inability to look after them because of the ineffective support they will have received. We are making incremental improvements, but until we review the system and make it focus on the child, rather than the structure that suits the State more than the child in care, we will continually face these problems. If we could take the money that has been spent on inquiries into issues affecting children in care and put it into a review of the care system, it would be money very well spent.