Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I very much welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue of grave importance to the House and the country, that is, the implementation of the recommendations of the Ryan report. I do not believe anyone in the House will forget the day on which the Ryan report was launched in May of last year and the shock it brought to everyone, including families, neighbourhoods, communities, the Government and all political parties.

I was tasked by the Taoiseach of the day, Deputy Brian Cowen, to prepare an implementation plan that would effectively respond to the issues raised by the Ryan report. Everyone is aware that in recent weeks and months the issues of child protection and child welfare have been to the forefront of public debate and it is appropriate that we take several hours to hold a discussion about how we will react to the Ryan report today. In particular, we must consider the various policy documents that have been already prepared. All NGOs that have spoken about this issue in the past few weeks and months have acknowledged that the right policies are in place. Our greatest challenge is to put those policies into action and to do so in a uniform way throughout the country.

Members should recall the building blocks to which we have referred and what we hope to put in place to ensure a child protection and welfare service in this country which is the envy of any country in the world. In particular, I refer to the PA Consulting report. This was commissioned by the HSE and finalised last October. It provides a roadmap for better management of HSE child protection services. Even the staunchest defender of the HSE would not deny that deficits exist which must be addressed in terms of management and a uniform delivery of services within the HSE. We also had the taskforce report on the standardisation of business processes, a crucial document which will ensure for the first time that the way in which one LHO, local health office, or one region of the HSE deals with a child who presents and who is vulnerable or at risk is the same regardless of where he or she presents in the country. We also have a knowledge management strategy which will, when fully rolled out, provide policy makers and anyone using the system with a contemporaneous picture of the type of child protection services available in the country at any one time.

We must respond comprehensively to the specific issues raised by HIQA in respect of foster care which have been ventilated in the newspapers and media in recent days and the lessons and risks posed by those findings when that report is finally presented by HIQA. We must also consider the implications it will have for the wider child protection service in Ireland. Taken together, these reforms must be put in place to ensure the child protection system operates to the highest standards.

Following the publication of the Ryan commission report, I carried out as wide a discussion as possible with the various survivor groups in Ireland and the UK. I met with many of the NGOs to discuss the best possible reaction.

We produced an implementation plan on 28 July 2009. It is important to emphasise that the final paragraph of that implementation plan commits me to presenting a report to the Government every year. The anniversary of that will be the end of July. Naturally, the Dáil will not be sitting at that time so I propose to present a report to Government at the end of June and to bring it before the House in order that it can be properly discussed before the anniversary when the House will not be sitting.

The implementation plan spans a four-year timeframe and is reflected in the provision of additional funding of €15 million in budget 2010 to facilitate implementation. In overall terms, the plan addresses the various action points under two distinct headings. The first of these is focused on the survivors of abuse and the second is targeted at children in the care of the State of today. It is worth emphasising that the survivor groups have consistently stated that one of their key motivators is to ensure children in care today are provided with much better services than was afforded to them.

The plan is very ambitious in what it sets out to achieve. This is deliberate. By setting ourselves clearly identified and ambitious timescales to achieve these actions we are challenging ourselves to meet the standards we have set for ourselves. That we are doing this in a time of extreme economic difficulty only serves to highlight the commitment of Government to improve services for children in the care of the State.

As I mentioned, the implementation plan focuses on both the survivors of institutional abuse and on children in care and detention today. I would like to address both of these areas. In regard to the survivors of abuse, the implementation plan made a number of specific recommendations. The very first action point provided for the establishment of a committee to examine an appropriate memorial for the victims of institutional abuse. I am pleased to report that this committee was established last October and its work is progressing. The committee has been consulting widely and I look forward to the outcome of its deliberations.

Another key action in regard to survivors was the commitment to provide additional counselling resources. Counselling for survivors is provided by way of the national counselling service, NCS. This is a professional, confidential counselling and psychotherapy service, available in all HSE areas. An additional €2 million has been made available to the service in the current year to meet this commitment. Furthermore, and as set out in the implementation plan, the NCS has been exempted from the public service moratorium on recruitment and replacement of staff.

I have had some very positive discussions with various NGOs interested in providing these services. Clearly, some people are not happy to engage with such services provided by the State given the negative experiences they had engaging with the State in previous times. The national counselling service can purchase counselling services from outside the statutory provision.

I would like to address the issue of services for children in the care of the State today. Child protection remains a critical area of Government policy. It is open to much scrutiny which, in itself, is a welcome catalyst for change. At present, there are approximately 5,700 children in the care of the State. Between relative and general foster care in excess of 5,130 children are accommodated in a family setting. This reflects the Government's commitment to ensuring that children are placed in a stable family environment, allowing them to develop close bonds that nurture their emotional and physical needs.

Successive public debates on child protection have indicated that our policy and legislative framework is sound but that implementation and service delivery must be overhauled. What the implementation plan sets out to address is the reality that despite this strong legislative and policy base, service delivery for children in need and children at risk is not sufficiently co-ordinated, is unevenly distributed nationally and must be improved.

That said, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the vital work carried out by social work teams who deal with difficult child protection cases on a daily basis. Some of the debate in this area is not very well informed. Too often it is forgotten that children who present to our child protection and welfare services have been already failed by many agencies and other interventions. It would be wrong to conclude in all cases that factors external to the HSE do not contribute to the difficulties experienced. We must be honest about that and broaden this debate when talking about deaths in care and related issues and look at the other factors which might have led to tragedies or the very challenging behaviours some of these children present.

Some of us read in the newspapers last Saturday that many staff in special care units are on extended sick leave because of the stress of the work they do and the challenging nature of the behaviour of some of these children. Some Members will have read in the last Saturday's newspapers reports that many staff in special care units are on extended sick leave because of the stress of their work due to the challenging nature of the behaviour of some of these children. It is extremely tough work. That is the case not only in special care units but in the case of every type of social work. We must acknowledge that of the 5,700 children in the care of the State today, the vast majority of them are being extremely well looked after. They have the best intervention they could possibly hope for, but in acknowledging that, we must also acknowledge the deficit, and that is the focus of all policy at this stage.

One of the principal commitments in the Ryan implementation plan is the need to ensure that all children in care have an allocated social worker and a care plan. To this end, the Government has committed to filling 270 HSE social worker posts by the end of 2011 and to the front-loading of this initiative in 2010, with the filling of 200 posts by the end of this year. This initiative is designed to target resources at front-line services in order to ensure that the HSE fulfils its statutory obligations. The Oireachtas has voted that the necessary finance be provided; the filling of these posts has been exempted from the public service moratorium on recruitment and replacement of staff; and there is an explicit commitment in the HSE service plan for 2010, as laid before the Oireachtas, that these posts will be filled.

I met senior HSE representatives, including the chairman of the board, in recent days to review the progress being made in this regard. The HSE has advised me that approximately 400 candidates are to be interviewed, starting next week, in order to form a new panel of suitable candidates to fill all 200 posts in the current year. The recruitment of these additional social workers is critical in terms of progressing the implementation plan and in ensuring the allocation of a named social worker to each child in care and the availability of care plans, properly updated, for all of these children. It is also important in order to ensure that all foster carers are properly assessed. I have been assured by the HSE that the matter is being afforded the highest priority by the board and by senior management. I will discuss this matter, together with other child protection matters, with the board of the HSE tomorrow.

There have been calls in recent days for the removal of child protection services from the HSE and for a new entity to be established to discharge the duties of the State in this regard. I do not share this view. While it may appear politically appealing, a fundamental aspect of a successful child care system is the ability to access early interventions, whether they are therapies delivered by health professionals or supports offered by public health nurses. In particular, there is an essential requirement to integrate our child protection services as part of the development of multidisciplinary services, both at hospital and primary care level. We have an opportunity now to plug into the developing primary care network around this country and it would be a mistake to miss that opportunity. Stripping away children's services from the HSE, therefore, will not go solve the problem. It is a quick fix solution to a very complicated problem and, as we know, quick fixes seldom result in lasting changes.

There is a risk that we would lose ground, as it would take several years to establish a new structure and valuable time would be lost in creating a new entity. A new name does not guarantee strong leadership, effective team-working and standardised ways of delivering a professional service. Much more needs to be done to build a strong and responsive service and a fresh approach is required within the HSE to deliver the change that we all wish to see. This has been reinforced by the events of recent weeks. In the course of my discussions with the HSE yesterday, I raised the need for the appointment of an individual at a national management level who has a proven track record in the reform of children and family services and who should, in my view, have a direct reporting relationship with the board and the chief executive. I briefed my Cabinet colleagues on the initiative last night and drew a parallel between the role that Professor Tom Keane played very successfully in cancer care and the new role I envisage for child welfare and protection. I emphasise that it would be my intention that this postholder would report directly to the chief executive just as Professor Keane did in the area of cancer control. The HSE was very receptive to the proposal and committed to working with me to source and appoint a person who would have the authority to deliver on the wide and ambitious reform programme. I propose to discuss these matters with the HSE board tomorrow.

The creation of this new position is a logical development and very much consistent with the emphasis in the PA report on strengthening management systems in the HSE in this area. It complements the steps already taken in implementing this report with the appointment, for the first time, of a senior person within the HSE with responsibility for the delivery of these services. This post, at assistant national director level, is an important first step in seeking to reform the child protection services in the HSE. The appointment is being accompanied by the restructuring of the service at national, regional and local level in order to strengthen front line delivery of services.

The HSE intends to publish the PA report this week, along with the HSE's own report of the children and family services task force, which provided a valuable insight into the current structure and deficits in the services. It is also my intention, beginning next Friday, to visit social workers at four venues around the country to have discussions on their impressions of the progress being made and the issues that need to be raised. The taskforce was also closely involved in the development of much needed and standardised business processes across the HSE child protection services. These will be necessary to facilitate the proper implementation of the new national child care information system, a national ICT system which will provide a basis for collecting and reporting on the delivery of front line services and which will help to strengthen accountability within the HSE.

Another key priority for me, as Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs, was the commitment to publish a revised Children First Guidelines. The original guidelines, first published in 1999, were revised and placed on the OMCYA website in December 2009, in line with a commitment in the implementation plan. A number of amendments have been made in the interim to take on board, for example, recommendations from the Ombudsman for Children in her recent report on the implementation on the Children First Guidelines and the recent guidance provided by HlQA to the HSE with regard to the deaths of children in care and serious adverse incidents. Arrangements for the printing and dissemination of the guidelines are being finalised. In addition, legislation is to be drafted to provide a duty to comply with Children First for all bodies in receipt of State funding, and that commitment is to be achieved by the end of this year.

I will bring proposals to Government very shortly setting out a comprehensive implementation framework, including a particular emphasis on strengthening the audit and inspection framework to exist in parallel with the statutory framework. This is to ensure that the guidelines are more effectively and correctly implemented across all sectors working with children. I anticipate that HIQA will have a very important role to play in this framework.

It is important that the weaknesses identified in various reviews of Children First are addressed in order to ensure that the State, voluntary sector and the wider community are aware of their obligations with regard to the protection of children and that appropriate mechanisms are in place to ensure that these obligations are met. Children First brings with it very clear responsibilities for those who become aware of child protection issues and these responsibilities are those we would reasonably expect everyone in society caring for children at risk to live up to.

On the issue of deaths in care, it should be noted that the creation of guidance was one of the targets of the implementation plan and that has been completed. It provides, for the first time, a national standard for systematically reviewing and reporting on child deaths and already some cases have been referred under this new system.

Delivery of any service must necessarily be underpinned by appropriate standards. The rationale for having a single set of standards is that the core principles apply to all children living away from home. Children have developmental needs and rights irrespective of their reason for coming into care. The core standards apply to all of the inspected services with some specific criteria dealing with the different contexts in which services are delivered.

The social services inspectorate of the Health Information and Quality Authority is in the process of developing a new set of standards for services for children in care. The standards are currently being amended by HIQA to take account of the response from the recent public consultation exercise and work on this is due to be completed by the end of this month. I expect that the final standards will be sent to me in October of this year.

In the time available to me I have set out the progress made to date in implementing the high level commitments, as set out in the Government's plan. I acknowledge that there are also a number of areas where progress has not been as rapid as I would have wished. In the case where certain actions have not yet been completed, I remain determined to see that all of the actions are delivered. In this regard, and in order to ensure the momentum of progress, I chair a high level group consisting of senior representatives from the relevant Departments and agencies to monitor the implementation of the actions specified in the plan. This group has met twice to date and will shortly finalise its first report on progress as required under the plan. Once finalised, I look forward to laying this progress report before both Houses and I will do this annually over the four-year lifetime of the plan. Although the anniversary falls towards the end of July, I propose to place that report before the Houses before the House rises for the summer recess.

As I stated at the time of the publication of the Government's implementation plan, the damage caused by a culture that tolerated and even encouraged physical, sexual and emotional abuse for decades will not be undone by words alone. Similarly, the failures in our services today will not be fixed by words and fine sentiments. Action and delivery must follow.

As a Government we have demonstrated our commitment to put in place the necessary resources to build a strong and responsive child protection system for those in greatest need. We have a detailed and ambitious programme of work which requires a sustained effort across various organisations and by the wider society. The role of Government is to provide leadership in promoting necessary change and reform. What I have set out today represents the action plan to which we are working and which will be the subject of continuing engagement within the House and elsewhere.

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