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

I thank all of the Senators for their contributions and their general support for the Child and Family Agency Bill. As every Senator has said, the legislation is about delivering more effective services and better inter-agency work.

I thank Senator Leyden for his comments. I take his point about the future development of the agency. The task force did recommend engagement with the public health nurses under its remit and the mental health services. In the first instance, quite a number of agencies will be joined so there will be a lot of personnel and a lot of management and legislation will be needed. Developing the agency will be discussed in the months ahead. In the first place, we will try to see how effectively we can link up with the agencies and the professionals outside of the agency. Equally, we will consider more involvement and engagement within the agency by some of the professionals. We need to have very good inter-agency work with the child and adolescent psychiatry services and public health nurses. A number of Senators made the same point. All of the evidence that we have proves that we are fortunate to have public health nurses in Ireland and that early intervention is very dependent on them. Many public health nurses have expressed a great interest in getting involved in the agency's work and I would like to see that option developed.

We will examine the other recommendations made by the task force as times goes on. Obviously we had to take an incremental approach to the organisations, agencies and professionals moving into the agency. I am very conscious of the task force report. The Senator referred to the initiatives taken by previous Governments along with the ones stated in the Bill.

I accept that the free preschool year is extremely valuable. This morning I attended a conference to launch the Growing Up in Ireland study where I heard more evidence of how the scheme helps a child cope with his or her transition to primary school. The study was conducted on a cohort of children aged 5. This is the first time that we have evidence on young people who had the benefit of a free preschool year and their transition into primary school. It is great to have evidence that proves they have made a very good transition to primary school despite the economic situation that some of their parents must face. Part of today's legislation builds towards a second year because it deals with quality in the sector.

A number of Senators asked about training. I can inform them that there is a training fund of €3 million for next year that will deliver subsidised training to the sector. It is a very low paid sector so the funding will help child care services in the early years.

I thank Senator van Turnhout for generally supporting the Bill and take her point about the importance of a budget. Like every other Minister I must fight for the budget. Recently I was told at a meeting that I should remind Ministers Noonan, Howlin and the remainder of the Cabinet that they were children once. Yes, they were. As I said, other Ministers will remind the entire Cabinet about the need for health services, roads and everything else. We all try to get the best budget for our respective Departments. I am fighting for the best possible budget for the Child and Family Agency but there are ongoing challenges in the area. As the economy improves the area is ripe for investment.

With regard to the Senator's points on children in need of special care, I wish to inform the House about the latest figures. Earlier this month there were 17 children in secure special care and five children in high support facilities. We propose to increase the number of special care places from 17 at present to 35 places. Those places are needed. Nine places are due to come on stream next year and the remainder will follow in 2015 and 2016. A number of units will also have increased capacity. I take her point about a waiting list for special care. Obviously we must try to avoid a waiting list.

The new Assessment, Consultation and Therapy Service, ACTS, has also been developed in the past year and is in place. It provides a specialist assessment and intervention for children in special care or detention. It is extremely important to have such a service.

A number of Senators made the point, and I have picked it out of some of the contributions here today, that the agency should have the appropriate culture and response to individuals in place. That is extremely important because we have all heard individual stories where there was not a good response. A positive culture involves training, resources, management and style of leadership. We have made changes. We have a new management team. We have built a greater and closer relationship between management and front line staff so we do not have as many levels of management in between. The initiative should make a difference.

We must examine various ways to provide support to workers. We must ensure that the new agency is viewed as an exciting and challenging opportunity. That is not easy to achieve whether one has worked in commerce, like Senator Quinn, or social services. A lot of demands are placed on staff and we must support morale, build teamwork and offer training. All of those elements will make a difference.

I wish to inform the House about social worker recruitment. The current number of child and family social workers in post is 1,385 whole-time equivalents. All 270 posts recommended by the Ryan report have been filled. I shall outline one of the problems. Due to age and gender profile and budgets social worker numbers are constantly in flux. At present there are 250 vacancies with approximately 110 arising from maternity leave. Recently we have filled 114 vacancies and a further 136 posts are being filled, of which 51 have been accepted by candidates. I obtained a budget increase of €6.7 million that will rise to €12 million in a full year to support further child protection reforms, including additional recruitment.

Clearly, Mr. Gordon Jeyes and his managers must operate in an environment where we have asked them, not only to establish a new agency, but manage within a defined budget which they will have to do next year and at a time of increased demand. Senator Hayden talked about the 10% increase in population.

Clearly, that has implications for early years services, primary schools and a new agency dealing with early intervention, children and families. We need to ensure the budgets reflect the increases appropriately. That is a challenge because, with primary schools, the budget must reflect the increase per capita. However, we need to think all the time about the other services the children use and the proportionate budgetary demands that a population increase makes on them.

Quite a number of Senators have spoken about inter-agency work and its importance. I can only agree. We have provided for this in the legislation for the first time. There has to be inter-agency work. There is no question but that it is all in the implementation.

Senator Feargal Quinn spoke about the resources challenge and the need for child care inspections. The changes I am making in this Bill to the child care legislation will mean higher standards and tougher penalties, as the Senator suggested. It is appropriate that there be tougher penalties. Under the legislation, there will be better mandatory training for staff. The training fund and mentoring programme we announced in the budget will make a difference in ensuring higher standards.

Many parents have been very surprised and shocked at what they saw on "Prime Time". People have known for a long time that we have needed to invest in quality but there was insufficient investment in the training and mentoring of the staff. The wages are low. I introduced subsidised training this year to ensure people will have, at a minimum, qualifications at FETAC levels 5 and 6. This is essential if we want to ensure children in early years services receive the kinds of support they need. It is unquestionable that there are many great providers but if one wants to improve standards one must invest in training and supports for workers.

Senator Quinn made a point about elder abuse. The protection of disclosure regarding children and vulnerable persons may cover a certain amount of what the Senator is saying. With regard to children, we will obviously be introducing effectively mandatory reporting for certain professional groups. It was interesting to hear the Californian example with regard to elder abuse. We need to be reporting the issue in the same way as child protection concerns have been reported. There is much greater awareness of the need to report to child protection issues than there was heretofore.

Senator Aideen Hayden spoke about the workload. I take her point on social workers and the need for our teams to be operating at the highest capacity possible. If they are not, it is extremely difficult for them. There is a role for the universities that has not yet been explored in terms of training social workers such that they can work on the front line in child protection. There is room for a more co-ordinated approach by the universities to support front-line workers. I would like to see more initiatives in this area. It is an area in which I would like to get involved myself, and I intend to do so.

Senator Hayden spoke about the culture needing to change. I certainly agree with that. The Senator highlighted the issue of poverty.

A number of Senators mentioned the ABC programme, which involves a €30 million investment. Approximately €15 million is provided by the Government and approximately €15 million by Atlantic Philanthropies. It will operating in 13 areas and it is obviously an important initiative. What solves the poverty problem primarily is creating jobs and getting the economy right. There is no question but that this will make the biggest difference for children and the more vulnerable families. That is why the increase in the number employed is so critical. As we get the economy right, it is important that we secure the intervention that will support vulnerable families.

With regard to the ABC programme, we have identified 12 areas that will not get funding at this stage but which have been identified for mentoring work. Perhaps at a later point, with further investment, they, too, will be in a position to get funding and deliver more services. A very important point on the ABC programme is that it involves an inter-agency arrangement. The Tánaiste and I launched it this morning. The Docklands, an area receiving over €1 million in funding, has 48 agencies. This indicates the number of agencies overall. We all know about this from the areas we represent. The Docklands has 48 agencies working together to deliver services. They applied as a consortium of 48, which is really to be welcomed because it means people are pooling their resources, their thinking and means of implementation. This should lead to better services for children.

Senator Cáit Keane talked about inter-agency work and integration. She referred to identifying who is responsible, when, where and how. On a recent visit to Washington to examine services for children at risk of coming into contact with the law and who are in detention, a key recommendation made by the service providers was that there be a lead person working with each child, and that the other agencies would work with that child also. A lead person should be identified, and we need to be much more conscious of that. The Senator also asked about training. We will certainly invest more in that.

Senator Moran talked about morale. Senator David Cullinane made some comments on poverty. I agree with him that we need to tackle it. The policies of the Government are targeted at improving the standard of living of everyone but we have obviously taken on a huge challenge in that regard. I have outlined the figures on social work numbers.

Senator Burke talked about the groups that will be providing services and the need to have proper accountability. This is spelt out very clearly. It is a matter of partnership with the voluntary organisations but accountability applies to everyone. That is clearly articulated in the legislation.

I hope I have addressed most of the issues that Senators have raised. Senator Henry raised the issue of alcohol, as did a number of others, including Senator van Turnhout. Alcohol is featuring very heavily as a precipitator of referrals to child protection services and of children entering care. We really do need to highlight the critical public health issues. Fairly shortly, the Minister of State Deputy Alex White will be bringing forward for the first time a public health Bill in this regard. It will really make a difference because it will address the problem. Senator Aideen Hayden referred to the pricing and availability of alcohol and the public health problems it causes, particularly among young people. These factors will be dealt with in the legislation.

I thank all Senators for their contributions to the debate today. This is the beginning of a new part to the work. The legislation is a good foundation but it is very challenging. There are many connections with economic circumstances because, as the economy improves and as more employment is created, circumstances for children and families will improve and there will be less pressure on families. It is important today to talk about how well so many children are doing. We are data-rich at present in respect of our children. The vast majority are doing extremely well but the legislation is to ensure we react in the best way possible to the benefit of the more vulnerable children and change our inherited legacy of fragmented services and poor response. I thank all Senators for their contributions on the Bill.