Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad this morning. I thank her for engaging with me on her availability and I appreciate the effort she made to be here this morning.

The F2 Centre in Fatima, Dublin 8, is a community-based family resource centre doing valuable work for a disadvantaged community in the south-west inner city. There have been a number of issues with the family support services provided to that community by the Rialto Springboard project. The board of management was informed on 18 November that the family support service would be relocated from the Rialto centre to its own offices, which has caused extreme alarm and concern in the local community.

The service was founded in 2001 with strong community involvement in governance of the project, including recruitment. In 2007, staff members from statutory organisations were withdrawn from community-based management boards which has had an impact on the integration dimension of the project. The project continued to carry out its responsibilities as a board, including the supervision of the project manager who in turn supervised staff and brought any staff and HR matters to the board of management for support. However, in September 2007 a new manager was appointed by Tusla. The board of management was excluded from the recruitment process, which was a radical departure from previous procedures. The relationship between the new manager appointed with new community involvement and the voluntary board has been problematic to say the least. It can, therefore, be no coincidence that Tusla then decided to terminate the service level agreement effective from the end of this month.

While disappointing, members of the community could manage the change as it they were repeatedly assured by Tusla that the family support service would stay in the Fatima centre. For this reason, the announcement that Tusla is relocating the service from the community centre to its own premises as a cost-saving measure was even more of a shock. I struggle to believe that cost savings are the motivation here. The service needs to stay in Fatima. I understand Dublin City Council has communicated regarding keeping the service there and I urge Tusla to engage. Tusla has also claimed the service was too locally focused, which is bizarre as Tusla's own policy supports community-based centres.

There are ongoing staffing issues at the centre. Of four project workers, two have been out sick since February, one handed in their notice and the last has made a complaint. I suggest the HR issues are the real motivation here and it is not fair to the project to claim that cost-saving is the motivation.

A meeting will take place tomorrow between Tusla and community representatives. A strong intervention from the Minister could help keep this service in the community. I urge her to intervene. As those in the community wanted to engage rather than just resist, they have an alternative proposal ready to go for Tusla to allow the service to be kept in the Fatima centre. I urge the Minister to ask Tusla to accept and engage in that process.

The local community is losing a valuable family support service, provided in an integrated support setting. The dedicated staff who have worked for years and in some cases over a decade with the community are left in a very precarious situation.

I urge the Minister to intervene. I have received many letters from parents who avail of that service and benefit from its localised work in an area of significant disadvantage. I remember the family resource centre being developed. From very early on, I was on the canal communities task force which dealt with the regeneration of Fatima. It is a purpose-built building. It is not appropriate to change the structure now when it is doing this work. I would be happy to share with the Minister's office the letters from the families who avail of the service. It is important to listen to their advice in any discussions that might take a service out of a community that has suffered from decades of poverty and inequality.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the issue and I welcome the opportunity to respond. She wrote to me last week on this issue and I appreciate her concern. I have also received a number of representations from other public representatives on this matter, including the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, Deputies Ó Snodaigh, Bríd Smith and Joan Collins and Councillor Michael Watters. All the representations I have received express grave concern as to what are seen as a potential loss of an important community resource as a result of a decision taken by Tusla. It is important to note that there has been no final decision.

Since becoming aware of these concerns, my Department has sought clarification from the chief executive of Tusla. I needed clarity on the decision to move the Rialto Springboard project family support service from the current arrangements with the F2 Centre. I want to know what is happening and to seek assurance that there will be no loss of service to the area concerned. I hope that what I can tell the House today will be of some assurance in this regard. Tusla administers and provides funding to a number of family support services, including family resource centres, as well as prevention, partnership and family support and parenting information. Tusla is fully committed to growing the Springboard Project for the whole of Dublin 8 in order to better meet the needs of the whole community, including Fatima and Rialto.

The socioeconomic needs of the Dublin 8 area have been fully researched and evidenced in Tusla's Dublin south central area directorate.This was done by means of a baseline survey and additional research commissioned by the Dublin south children and young people's services committee to identify the needs of the community. We are well aware of the evidence.

I am informed that meetings have taken place between Tusla's regional service director, Tusla's area manager for Dublin South-Central and the voluntary board of management of the F2 Centre. At these meetings, concerns regarding the current governance structure were outlined. This is particularly in the context of all of the Rialto Springboard project staff being directly employed by Tusla, including the manager. I understand that a further meeting between senior management from Tusla and the manager of the F2 Centre to discuss concerns will take place in the coming days.

Tusla has advised me that the structure of the board of management of the F2 Centre does not meet the requirements necessary for the growth, development and sustainability of the Springboard project for the wider Dublin 8 community. It is concerned the service was not meeting the needs of families who are being referred for family support services by social workers. In the Dublin South-Central area, Tusla has implemented a number of changes within the prevention, partnership and family support structure. This includes the development of a child and family support network, which seeks to develop inter-agency relationships and to use projects such as Rialto Springboard to identify families and children in need of support and intervention. We need to ensure a more timely response to families in need in Dublin 8 and this is how we are trying to do this. That is what has been said to me.

The manager of the Rialto Springboard project has consulted widely with families and children currently in receipt of services from Springboard in respect of the proposed changes. Assurances have been given that work already taking place with those families will continue. By temporarily relocating the Springboard project close to the Rialto area, Tusla believes the service will also be able to make savings in respect of a recent rent review undertaken by the F2 Centre, as the Senator indicated. These savings can and will be invested back into the project to enhance services for the entire Dublin 8 area.

It is essential to note that there is no planned cessation of services for families in the community. Tusla is working to improve and grow the service for the whole area extending beyond the areas of Fatima and Rialto. Tusla is working with other agencies in Dublin 8 to expand the Rialto Springboard project to include existing regeneration projects in the area. This will improve responses to the needs of families in the community, such as children affected by the regeneration of Dolphin House where Rialto Springboard has been more present this year. The work of other Departments and agencies in a range of State-supported community-based services associated with Rialto and Fatima is also highly relevant to the well-being of children and young people.

As the Senator knows, this work could not succeed without a major effort on the part of the large number of volunteers who give their time in various ways to make their communities better. I acknowledge the important contribution of all volunteers in that community and throughout the country. It is important that all State bodies co-operate to meet the needs of service users and achieve the best possible outcomes. I place a very high value on community-based family support services.

I reiterate that there has been no final decision on this. My office is engaging directly with Tusla at a senior level to ensure that the way forward meets the needs of the community. Our ultimate aim is to provide more services, better and more timely services for families in Dublin 8. I will be kept informed of all developments.

Lynn Ruane (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I accept the Minister's indication that this is not a final decision. However, Tusla's analysis is a little unfair. There is much happening in communities across Dublin. If I am honest, this case mirrors some of that and there is local knowledge and autonomy that has existed for ten, 20 or 30 years in the community. There are strong advocates and community workers. People who have dedicated their entire lives to the communities they serve. If we are to think that they should not, in a sense, serve beyond the locality of the F2 building, we must look at whether resources should be put into other family resource centres in different communities. It sounds like Tusla was referring to the fact that this organisation does not meet all the needs in the wider Dublin 8 area. It is a conversation worth having but it should not happen on the back of a community-based initiative being ripped out of the heart of Fatima. There are requirements in communities where we need extra family support, including either agencies or workers.

On the idea of a satellite programme for parents, I know the community and have worked in the canal communities. Travelling beyond Fatima or Dolphin House might not seem like a big task to some people but it is to many parents who have a short amount of time in the day and who may have very chaotic lives. Having the F2 Centre providing a family resource worker and service is crucial to these parents. We need to shift the conversation between now and whenever a decision is made to how we can ensure all communities will have family resource services within their communities. It is not that we need a more centralised service that everybody will have to travel to. That removes the local community knowledge and the essence of what is community development and work. It is about being able to reach out in a community. Satellite programmes do not have individuals who have lived and worked in those communities and who can engage with some of the hardest to reach families in those communities of Dolphin House, Dublin 8 and the surrounding areas. Centralising this with Tusla having a satellite programme would remove a bridge that exists between the communities that are hardest to reach and Tusla as an agency that is trying to provide a service. It is why the workers in Fatima are crucial to keeping that connection between State and community open.

It feels that there is a bit of a fight currently to ensure that some of the State agencies continue to acknowledge the relevance, hard work and value of community projects in particular areas. I do not want that pull that we feel is happening in many of those communities to continue.

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have listened very carefully to everything the Senator said in both of her contributions. I appreciate all the dimensions she identifies, the passion with which she speaks and the knowledge she brings to the subject.

I know our time is short but I have some comments. The Senator indicated that the board of management was excluded from the recruitment process. Everything she said will be noted. I was trying to outline in my initial comments that relocation does not mean that services will not be delivered. I have heard the Senator's comments about serving the whole of Dublin 8 versus a local service, or satellite and centralised services. She has argued that resources must stay in their communities and leave local community knowledge where it is. I will ask Tusla to ensure that it takes this into account and that it be committed to such practice.

From what I have said and what I understand, there have been some governance issues and that is part of what has gone on in the project. Having said that, I know the Senator has said the community has an alternative proposal. This may involve moving beyond ensuring the bridge to better services in the community, about which the Senator spoke very eloquently. I will ask Tusla to engage with the parties to hear those alternative proposals. I am happy to receive the letters mentioned by the Senator and I will pass them to Tusla if it does not have them already.

I have begun the review sought by the Senator. We have engaged with those at the highest level in Tusla. We are waiting to hear about the ongoing process before a final decision is made. Let us see what happens. Tusla is in a new era of leadership and is trying to achieve reform in the right way. That is happening. I have confidence in that but, at the same time, it is important that the Senator and other public representatives raise these matters. I will keep my eye on the matter and stay in touch with the Senator in respect of it.