Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government has approved the heads of the child and family support agency Bill and has also agreed to the priority drafting of this Bill. The necessary legislative and organisational preparations are being prioritised in order that the agency can be established early in 2013. From its establishment the child and family support agency will have service responsibility for a range of services, including child welfare and protection services currently operated by the HSE, and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services. The functions of the Family Support Agency and the National Educational Welfare Board will transfer into the child and family support agency upon its establishment.

The Government's consideration of these matters was informed by the recommendations of the task force on the child and family support agency which I published in July of this year. The task force considered that the agency needs to be as broadly based as possible and should include a range of prevention, early intervention, family support and therapeutic care interventions.

It is my intention that the agency will have a role in supporting families and communities. It will have the benefit in this role of 106 family resource centres which have been developed with funding from the Family Support Agency. I have seen repeatedly at first hand the work of the family resource centres. I assure the Deputy that the new agency will build on the excellent work undertaken by the Family Support Agency over the past decade and that a community-based approach will form an integral part of the new child and family support agency. I have said this repeatedly and we are absolutely committed. The child protection services cannot work properly if we do not have this base of community work and family support. I have said to the workers in the family resource centres that the ethos and the criteria by which they do their work will be maintained in the new agency.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

The composition of the board of the child and family support agency is under consideration. While the composition of the board will reflect the component organisations which are being amalgamated into the child and family support agency, the criteria for board membership will be focused on ensuring board members have the requisite mix of experience and competencies needed to steer such a large organisation providing a diverse range of personal services.

The new agency and the wider transformation of children's services represents the largest and most ambitious areas of public sector of reform embarked upon by this Government.

See this speech in context