Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Since the inception of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, OMCYA, a key emphasis has been placed on improving the availability and quality of management information. Key components of this information management include the annual review of adequacy of children and family services, prepared annually by the HSE under section 8 of the Child Care Act 1991, and the monthly service plan monitoring reports submitted to the Department of Health and Children. The section 8 reports now include the data previously collected in the analysis of child care interim data set. The further development of this information strategy is set to continue with the completion and roll-out of the joint OMCYA-HSE knowledge management policy, which has been a key element of recent discussions between myself and senior management in the HSE.

As regards the specific areas of information mentioned by the Deputy, information currently available in this area of child welfare and protection is collated and submitted as part of the previously mentioned section 8 annual reviews. Owing to the need to put in place a new reporting structure and methodology to reflect the new unitary structure following the establishment of the HSE, reports in respect of 2005 and 2006 were delayed but have now been published. I am informed by the HSE that the 2007 report is nearing completion and that thereafter, reports will follow in a timely fashion. These annual reviews include, inter alia, details of reported child protection cases and outcomes, broken down into each of the four primary, community and continuing care, PCCC, regions. Under current systems in place in the HSE, there is a time lag in the availability of information requested by the Deputy. It is imperative that such information be available on demand and for this reason I have requested the HSE to prioritise the necessary development and implementation plans so as to have this information readily available for service delivery and monitoring purposes.

In addition to this annual report, the HSE National Service Plan 2008 committed the HSE to developing, from the second quarter of 2008, a mechanism for collecting quarterly information from each administrative area on the following indicators: the number of notifications made of child abuse or neglect, the number of assessments conducted following notifications, the number of children on waiting lists for assessments following notification of child abuse or neglect and the average time spent on a waiting list for assessment following notification of child abuse or neglect.

Reporting against this measure is based on the phased implementation of standardised business process currently taking place through the HSE's child care information system project. I have been informed by the HSE that the first of the standardised business processes required for reporting against these measures were agreed and piloted during 2008 and will be implemented during 2009. At a recent meeting with HSE managers I was also informed that the HSE is seeking to provide additional resources to the standardised business process project. This should enable the HSE to provide my office with timely information relating to all of the areas mentioned by the Deputy.

See this speech in context