Ms Suzanne Connolly:

I want to respond to Senator McGreehan question regarding silos. What enables services to work effectively is where the relationships are such they are focused on meeting the service requirements of children and their parents, which is the priority. They each say what they need to do to deliver what the children and their parents require. Therefore, the silos do not come into question. That must be the priority. What the committee could consider at some point, working with other committees, is that sometimes we need to encourage that cross-organisational, cross-Department working through the funding arrangements required. We know from our practice in Barnardos that sometimes local relationships are fantastic and work really effectively and that sometimes they involve much hard work. We all come into this work because we want to deliver really good services for children and parents who need it. I always like to finish on that optimistic term. I would also suggest Departments need to lead by example and so do, dare it say it, public representatives, of which these committees are a good example.