Dáil debates

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

Child Care Reports

9:50 am

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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3. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs his views on the second interim report of the child care reporting project, particularly the statement that approximately one in four care orders involve families in which one or more parent is of ethnic minority background; his further views on whether this is an over-representation compared with families of dual Irish background; and if the Child and Family Agency will provide the reason ethnic minorities are so heavily over-represented in the family courts. [43988/14]

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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The Minister will be aware that some very interesting and important data have emerged from the second interim report into the child care law reporting project, which revealed that one out of every four child care cases that ends up in the courts involves a family in which at least one parent is a member of an ethnic minority, and that African families are 20 times more likely to have a care order placed against their children. Clearly, this information needs to be analysed further. What are the Minister's initial opinions on the reasons for this?

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The child care law reporting project is an independent project established under section 3 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007 in accordance with the regulations made under that Act, with the support of the One Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

The aims and objectives of the project are to provide information to the public on child care proceedings in the courts; to conduct research on these proceedings in order to promote debate and inform policy-makers, which is what we are doing here today; to make recommendations to address any shortcomings in the care system identified by the research; to assist in the implementation of these recommendations; and to promote confidence in the care system. The project will provide a measure of the effectiveness of current systems and policies in the area of child protection and that of court administration. Ultimately it will assist the Department in gaining a greater depth of knowledge and understanding of care cases and it will increase the evidence base on which future policy formulation is based.

The project pursues its aims and objectives by attending the courts where care cases are heard in order to report on those proceedings while protecting the anonymity of the children and their families. The project publishes reports of care cases for the public and all relevant stakeholders, collects and analyses data from the proceedings, publishes reports on the nature and outcomes of the care proceedings and seeks to promote a public debate on the issues raised through seminars and conferences.

Child care cases, heard mainly in the District Court, involve applications by the Child and Family Agency for orders to protect children, including supervision orders, emergency and interim care orders and full care orders. Under supervision orders, families receive help and supervision from the agency. Under care orders, a child is placed in care on either an interim or a more permanent basis. The cases are heard in camerain order to protect the privacy of the children and their families. There are rarely written judgments in the District Court.

The second interim report, published last month, reported that while the majority, 70.4%, of the respondents in care cases are Irish, this is substantially less than the proportion of Irish-born people in the population as a whole. Some 7% of the respondents are European, the vast majority of whom come from Eastern Europe. The next largest category is "mixed", meaning that at least one parent is not Irish. This category includes two or more non-Irish parents from different backgrounds as well as Irish and non-Irish parents. Almost 4% of the respondents are recorded as Irish Travellers.

There is quite a bit more in the reply and, as I know the Deputy is concerned about this issue, after she asks her supplementary question I will come back to it.

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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The Minister would clearly agree that data are very important to us in order to evaluate our policies and improve our services. We all agree that it is generally in the best interests of the child for him or her to remain with his or her parents if at all possible and for that family to receive the support it needs to get to that place. If a child is removed from his or her parents, it should be based on a reunification plan to get them back based on strict criteria for what the parents need to do in that regard.

It is emerging that a disproportionately large number of the children come from an ethnic background in which at least one parent is not Irish. That could be for a number of reasons. It could be related to the higher levels of poverty that exist in those groups, particularly among asylum seekers who are not permitted to work. There can also be cultural factors. In some African and eastern European countries, parents have a much stricter approach to discipline - this might echo the Ireland of a generation or two ago - whereby they might nearly be regarded as negligent parents if they do not bring up their children to respect authority in a way that we might deem to be unacceptably rough. Cultural training of social workers is critical. There needs to be support for families whose family network is not around them in Ireland. Other troublesome families have a family network to lean on if they are in trouble. People who have come to this country do not have that. We need to be sensitive and take on board some of those points.

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for her contribution. She may have pre-empted what I was going to say. These are very serious issues.

The report's author notes that the cases in question represent a very heterogeneous group and the issues that bring them to the child care courts vary widely, so there is no single approach that could reduce the proportion of ethnic minority families at this juncture. For example, the category includes Irish Travellers, asylum seekers and other immigrants who may be highly educated and economically independent but, as the Deputy pointed out, have different cultural norms. Physical discipline emerged as an issue for children from some other immigrant communities. This raises issues of the need for early involvement of appropriately trained family support workers with immigrant families and community leaders, a point the Deputy also made very well.

The fact that such a high proportion of at-risk children come from ethnic minority communities highlights the need for cultural sensitivity, focused integration policies and cultural mediation services. The Child and Family Agency has advised that it brings cases to court solely on the basis of the evidence it has regarding the welfare and protection of children. The agency has introduced a training component on cultural competence for staff so that they may better understand the needs and diversity of the families concerned.

All of the variations in care applications and outcomes by regional, ethnic and family status that have been identified throughout the course of the project to date require further research to determine the reasons for the variations and to see how more targeted interventions can, where possible, ensure that the level of intervention is the most appropriate.

The Deputy's point on the social supports of the extended family is also well made.

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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These are relatively new problems for a new agency to deal with. The most important thing is to flag them in order to attend to them. I believe that poverty and social exclusion in those communities represent a large part of it. We have a problem with retention of social workers, with experienced social workers leaving the system because the only promotional path open to them is to take a managerial position, which takes them away from the front-line role they could play, in which they could be more effective. We need to look at retaining social workers' experience within the system, with training on cultural issues for the newer intake to be introduced.

10 o’clock

While this information has been very good in terms of what has ended up in the courts, does the Minister have a mechanism for ascertaining how similar data could be gathered within communities before the matter ends up in court? Are there similar discrepancies and plans to address the issue of the gathering of such information?

10:00 am

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Again, I thank the Deputy for her contribution because, obviously, the earlier one intervenes the better and if there is a mechanism for obtaining information early before people actually arrive at the court, clearly that would be preferable. It is important to state, however, that this reporting project is in its early stages. This is only the second interim report and it is not possible to reach firm conclusions based on the information available at this stage. The variations in the numbers of child care applications and outcomes, including by region, ethnicity and family status, that have been identified by the project to date require further research to determine the reasons for them and establish how more targeted interventions could, where possible, ensure the level of intervention was at the most appropriate.

I hear the Deputy's issue about people who are trained professionally moving into management positions and leaving gaps at the front. Equally, however, I am greatly concerned that social workers do the work for which they have been trained and not do work that others at a lower professional level could do. I refer, for example, to being caught up in book work and clerical work. There is an issue concerning information technology in this area, as many social workers are still reduced to using pen and paper and do not have access to modern information technology that would make their job a lot more efficient, feed information back to the Department much more quickly and allow it to analyse the information more thoroughly.