Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is something that has always rung through for me. I have been involved in many cases of advocacy as a community worker, including working with women who had addiction issues, where we sat down and looked at care plans. Tusla’s intervention at the time would have been very heavily focused on a parenting course. In those situations it was not that the mother needed a parenting course. It was very much that she was living beyond her means due to the conditions she had, her environment and having perhaps experienced trauma throughout her life. There were all these other conditions that were a factor. Obviously, there are cases of neglect or abuse where care intervention will be needed, but there are many cases where judgments are made often on foot of an unconscious bias by social workers who have good intentions but who do not have the lived experience of being in a community or a certain cultural environment that they do not understand. They make harsh decisions based on an experience they had growing up that they are now not experiencing but which might be quite normal to the rest of us living in those communities in terms of who we are, how we speak or how loudly we do or do not shout. We should always ensure prevention in those cases is very much to the fore of these conversations as well.

I wish to deal specifically with the policy issue. Coming into care presents many challenges for children, young people and their families. The lived reality for these families is something many of us cannot understand because it is so foreign from the lived experiences we know ourselves. We need to acknowledge this while also working hard to ensure there is greater parity between the lived experiences of all children in Ireland. While early intervention and family support are critical in this way, sadly, there will always be circumstances where children will need to be cared for out of home. Therefore, we have a collective responsibility to ensure the State provides the best alternative care possible to these children.

The first area is the importance of data collection, which was mentioned, and analysis in respect of children in care and young adults in aftercare services. We simply do not have access to enough data regarding the unique experiences and outcomes of individuals who are care-experienced. How can we improve services, policy and legislation if we do not know the full extent of the problems we are trying to solve? In 2009, the Ryan report called for a longitudinal study to be undertaken on the experiences of young people in care and aftercare. While data collection has improved in the meantime, we have been waiting too long for action on this recommendation. I know the Minister is awaiting a report from a working group established to investigate the best way to collect, follow and analyse those data. I look forward to real progress being made in this area in the new year.

The second issue I wish to address is the provision of therapeutic support for children in care. The reality is that most young people who come into care are likely to require therapeutic intervention, but young people often do not receive the interventions they require in a timely manner and at other times they do not receive them at all. Social workers, foster carers and parents regularly have to battle to ensure their child can get access to therapeutic support. That needs to change.The social work sector should have access to these supports in-house and every young person in the care of the social work area should have the opportunity to avail of them. Having in-house teams of specialists would ensure continuity of care for children while also allowing social work teams to garner therapeutic insights to inform their work with individual children and families. A model exists for this in the Dublin north-central social work area where there is an in-house therapeutic hub. This model should be replicated around the country as a priority. However, if it is the case that we cannot provide these services in-house in the short to medium term, we should ensure that children in care have designated pathways to access specialist services in their respective local health areas.

The third issue I wish to bring to the Minister's attention is the need for independent advocacy for parents who are engaged with Tusla. This is very close to my heart. I proposed an amendment to the adoption legislation in 2016 in respect of the lack of a dedicated social worker for a parent who has seen his or her child go into care. That amendment also required Tusla to have to signpost parents in the direction of supports, especially if later in life Tusla is going to seek a High Court judgment to remove the parental right of a parent without consent. I know that social workers try their best to step into this role, but the dynamic between parents and social workers does not really allow for it. The system that parents must interact with is very complex, the language they need to decipher is often inaccessible and the relationships they must maintain are atypical and often fraught with tension. Parents need and deserve access to their own support that can help them to navigate these complexities. We also must take account of the individual circumstances that contributed to each family coming to the attention of Tusla. Supporting parents in this way can assist them in making the positive changes required to resume care of their children. It can also help them to maintain healthy relationships with their children. We must ensure that in supporting children we do not lose sight of the importance of supporting their families.

The last issue I wish to address is aftercare, which could be a topic of discussion in its own right. We all can agree that early adulthood poses many challenges, but consider trying to navigate this critical life stage while unpacking the baggage that comes with being care-experienced. Aftercare workers provide critical support to young people as they navigate this transitional life stage but, unfortunately, not all care leavers have an individual allocated worker. While drop-in services are provided for those without an allocated aftercare worker, this cannot replicate the benefits offered by the continuity of a relationship with a supportive adult. Moreover, the quality of services being provided around the country is inconsistent due to the varying capacities of aftercare teams in different regions. Advocacy groups for children in care and care leavers, such as Empowering People in Care, EPIC, have called for the age of eligibility for aftercare to increase to 26 years. In the event that this is not achievable in the short or medium term, I call on the Department at least to consider expanding the age of eligibility to 23 years, irrespective of whether a young person is enrolled in education. At present, we have a system where young people who are not enrolled in education lose access to their aftercare support at the age of 23 when, in many cases, it is these young people who require the most support.

As with all forms of housing at present, there is a significant undersupply in aftercare accommodation. The issue is so pronounced that many care leavers have no choice but to engage with homelessness services to identify suitable accommodation. While the capital assistance scheme has been a welcome development in recent years, the demand for accommodation in this scheme far exceeds the supply. A strategy must be developed to address this issue, specifically to ensure that no care leaver finds himself or herself without a stable and secure home.

Before concluding I wish to express my solidarity with all care-experienced individuals, their families and foster families, and to acknowledge the work of all those dedicated to ensuring that children and young people with experience in care achieve their full potential and lead happy and healthy lives. Finally, I acknowledge the work of the Department and the work the Minister is already undertaking to address the issues and concerns I have raised. I know that making improvements for children in care and care leavers is a priority for the Minister and I look forward to working with him to achieve progress in this area.