Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

All residential services for separated children seeking asylum are provided by non-statutory service providers on behalf of the Health Service Executive. The registration and inspection service of the HSE is responsible for the inspection of these residential services. The Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, does not inspect residential services operated by non-statutory service providers. However, when the relevant sections of the Health Act 2007 are commenced, the remit of HIQA will include inspections of both statutory and non-statutory children's residential centres.

The HSE has, year on year, increased the level of resources to separated children seeking asylum. This has allowed services to develop from the rudimentary service in 2000 to the level of support and care that exists today. The task is not yet complete and work will continue this year to develop the service to an appropriate standard.

There is recognition within the HSE that this service needs to be considered on a national basis. Plans are in progress to move the focus away from Dublin as a service point and, in the future, separated children will be placed in appropriate placements across the country. As a parallel process the hostels currently in use in Dublin will be wound down.

In or around 2000, when large numbers of asylum seekers began to arrive in this country there was an emergency response across all relevant agencies, including the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the former health boards and local authorities. Large hostels were used to accommodate asylum seekers and separated children seeking asylum were mixed in with single adults and families in such units. The former health boards' response regarding separated children was to put together a dedicated team to deal with the issue. Initially, a principal social worker was assigned with a number of staff. This team has grown over the years and now includes nearly 30 full-time staff including social workers and project workers, as well as clerical, medical, nursing and psychology inputs.

The first key task in respect of securing the safety of separated children was to place them in dedicated accommodation. This was done over a period, although many of the hostels then in use contained too many children and some contained up to 80 children. The next task was to reduce the number of children in each hostel to more appropriate numbers and this was achieved over time to the point where most hostels now have less than 30 children in each. In addition, a registered children's residential unit with six places was opened in the Tallaght area.

The current service provision to separated children includes foster care, residential care, supported lodgings and hostel care. The number of fostering placements has increased year on year. The most vulnerable of separated children are placed with foster parents. All separated children under the age of 12 are either cared for in a foster care setting or alternatively in a registered children's home.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

There currently are two registered children's homes in operation for separated children with two others in the process of being commissioned. These will accommodate children up to the age of 16. There also are seven hostels which provide accommodation for such children who are aged 16 years and over. As the HSE does not consider these hostels to be registerable, it is moving to phase out the hostel care arrangements starting next month. On this basis, these hostels are not being inspected by the registration and inspection service of the HSE. However, the HSE receives regular reports from the project workers attached to the team for separated children seeking asylum in respect of each hostel.

While the HSE is moving towards placing children across the country, in the medium term it will be necessary to continue to refer some children into the remaining hostels, although this will diminish with time. To date, three residential centres for separated children have been inspected. Two of the inspection reports have been completed and will be made available to the Deputy.

The HSE, in currently progressing plans to move to a more comprehensive model of care for these children, aims to ensure that all accommodation for separated children meets the relevant national standards. The HSE is working with the registration and inspection service to achieve this aim. It is anticipated that by the end of 2009 the number of registered children's residential centres that comply with the standards will have increased to four. It is the objective of the HSE that all separated children will, in the future as soon as is feasibly possible, be placed in foster care, in a registered residential care placement or the equivalent.

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