Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

One of the principal commitments in the implementation plan prepared following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is the need to ensure that all children in care have an allocated social worker and a care plan. This initiative is designed to target resources at front line services in order to ensure that the HSE can fulfil its statutory obligations. An additional 200 social workers were recruited in 2010 and the HSE has been given approval to recruit a further 60 social workers in 2011. The remaining ten posts will be filled thereafter. The necessary finance has been provided and the filling of these posts has been exempted from the public service moratorium on recruitment and replacement of staff.

The latest available information from the HSE indicates that the number of children in care nationally at the end of April 2011 was 6,122. Of those children, 5,441 - 90% - had a written care plan in place. This represents a significant improvement on the position in mid-2010 when 82% of children in care had a written care plan. The breakdown by care type nationally of children in care who had a written care plan in place was as follows: those in residential care, 93.3%; foster care, 89.4%; foster care with relatives, 87.3%; and other care types - for example, at home under care order - 88.9%. Therefore, approximately 90% of children in all sorts of settings had written care plans in place.

The HSE further reported that nationally, 94.6% of all children in care had an allocated social worker. Again, this represents a significant improvement on the position in mid-2010 when 86.5% of children in care had an allocated social worker. The breakdown by care type nationally in respect of children with allocated social workers is as follows: those in residential care, 96.7%; foster care, 95.3%; foster care with relatives, 92.5%; and other care types - for example, at home under care order - 95.8%. It is obvious that 100% of children in care do not have allocated social workers. However, that is the target. It would be difficult to achieve it, particularly with, for example, children moving in and out of emergency care. Allocated social workers may not be immediately available so to actually reach 100% could prove quite difficult. We do, however, want every child in care to have an allocated social worker.

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