Seanad debates

Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Child and Family Agency Bill 2013: Committee Stage

 

6:55 pm

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

I will take the last point first concerning which services get outsourced and which will be delivered by the agency itself. That is precisely the benefit of having an agency that is pulling together all the services for children, as well as bringing together the relevant agencies dealing with family support, education and welfare, child and family services, and child protection services. The benefit is that one now has a dedicated management and leadership examining what services are under their umbrella. They will examine it through a national rather than a local lens because we have not had such a perspective before. For example, there was no national approach to inspection of pre-schools and no national standards were set to the necessary degree. That also applies to many other areas. This is the big advantage of taking a national approach, albeit with some local variation in service delivery depending on whatever is needed.

There will now be an agency with a dedicated management examining this area. One of the first tasks that Mr. Gordon Jeyes has been involved in is to examine the relationship between providers. Some €100 million of the €500 million plus goes to other providers who complement State services. The Senator is right to say that the system requires ongoing review because one cannot continue giving money to the same providers. As we have seen in recent times, such a system needs ongoing audit and assessment, which is exactly what Mr. Jeyes has done. It also needs an alignment between the money the State provides to voluntary organisations, including NGOs, and the State's priorities.

The State may be dealing with 20,000 child protection referrals but some of those will need to be referred to family support services. The State must ensure that the agencies it is funding are willing to provide such family support if the child protection workers themselves are in a position to do so. I take the Senator's point concerning the review of the relationship with providers. I can assure her that is part and parcel of what is happening at the moment. There are also governance issues, as we have seen across many sectors and not just concerning services for children.

The Senator also mentioned service providers' adherence to legislative standards, including the Children First guidelines. She is correct to say that if one is providing a residential service one must guarantee that it adheres to Children First principles. Yesterday, I attended the launch of a report by Dr. Helen Buckley on the five abuse inquiries that have taken place. She examined how best we should respond to this matter and her report is a very useful piece of work. As well as Dr. Buckley's work, we can see from HIQA reports that there are inconsistencies. Better internal mechanisms are required to manage such matters. If HIQA examines what is happening, one is more likely to get that kind of consistency from providers as well, including HSE providers. As we know, HIQA will now examine the HSE's child protection services. A combination of objective outside services going in, plus better internal controls and management by the HSE is required. One must demand that providers adhere to those standards in conformance with current legislation, and that has to be checked on an ongoing basis. I agree with the Senator that that can be done.

Wherever multi-annual funding is feasible, I have no doubt the agency will try to do it. It makes more sense but, given our current budgetary arrangements, it is not always the easiest thing to do. We must give some certainty to NGOs, however, which goes beyond a year where possible.

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