James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for raising the issue of Tusla's child protection and welfare services in the Louth-Meath area and I welcome the opportunity to address his concerns. The inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, reported concerns the standard of services being provided to children and families in the area. This is a significant cause of concern to me, my staff and Tusla. As Deputy O'Dowd pointed out, HIQA's findings are stark. This demonstrates the real importance of having an independent regulatory regime. I assure the Deputy that of the 46 actions arising from significant risks, 22 have now been addressed and a further 24 will all be completed within dedicated time-frames. Steps have been taken to ensure all children on the child protection notification system are allocated a social worker and improvements made to record keeping and data collection. I was glad to see that HIQA found that all cases where children at immediate risk of harm at the point of referral were responded to in a timely manner, although I also noted that in some cases there were waiting periods for a dedicated social work service.

HIQA was satisfied with the action plan to address the significant risks that were identified. Half of the 101 actions required are now complete and HIQA and officials in my Department will monitor progress to ensure the improvements required are made. Issues were highlighted regarding resources and staffing in counties Louth and Meath, and these are being addressed at national level as a matter of urgency. Officials from my Department are already engaging with Tusla on resources for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016. A submission on staffing and other resource issues is to be made in the near future.

It has to be said that resources were not the only issue, however. Other deficits in the local service arose from systems either not being implemented well or not implemented fully. This led to concerns being expressed about the prioritisation of cases, the processing of complaints and management level information on cases. Tusla notified me on the problems in the services prior to the publication of HIQA's report and it has taken direct ownership of action to improve the standards of service delivery. The area is under a special programme of improvement led directly by the chief operations officer to address oversight and quality assurance. A project social work team is in place to deal with the backlog and to assist with the implementation of national guidance and practice for the duration of the special programme. The longer term issues and overall consistency of service delivery are being addressed by work at national level on policy and quality assurance.

It is worth noting that the inspection findings were not all about deficiencies. Many children were found to have benefitted from the service and there was evidence of good practice and excellent interagency collaboration. Good practice with children and families was observed by inspectors, who also found that many neglect cases were well managed by social workers and children's lives had improved from social work and family support intervention. The issue of completing initial assessments is dealt with in the report which states that the majority were of good quality, based on detailed information from key sources and including the clearly expressed views of children. A minority of assessments were not of such good quality. Difficulties were identified regarding signing off and closing assessments. I understand Tusla is examining timeframes to better reflect the activity and dynamic nature of assessments overall.

The issues identified by HIQA are of a concern to us all. I have asked to be kept informed on progress. A recurring theme overall in recent HIQA inspections is that social services are generally of a good standard but there are problems with the timeliness of the service. This is a particular challenge as the demands on the service increase. As a relatively recent national organisation, the challenge for Tusla is to provide a consistent response to identified need based on good quality assurance data and appropriate resources. Reforms on how the service is organised nationally are taking effect. I am committed to ensuring the reforms underpin a service that delivers a responsive and safe child welfare and protection service for the children and families of not only of counties Louth and Meath but the entire country.

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