Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 25: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to a report recently completed which confirms that there are hundreds of cases reported to the Health Service Executive of children being at risk which have to date not been allocated to a social worker and whose circumstances have not been comprehensively assessed; the action taken by her to date with regard to similar reports made during the past two years; if she has read the latest such report; and if it will be immediately published in the public interest. [20651/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In 2008, the HSE undertook a data and information collection exercise in respect of child welfare and protection social work across its 32 Local Health Office areas. The purpose of this exercise, the first of its kind, was to provide a better understanding of the activity in each child welfare and protection social work department and, as far as possible, to correlate the various social, economic and environmental factors that have a negative impact on the welfare and protection of children.

The output from this work is contained in a comprehensive report titled Social Work and Family Support Survey 2008, which was completed in April 2009. The report correlates demographic and deprivation data, indicators of children at risk, human resources available to HSE child welfare and protection social work departments, and activity levels in these departments. The preparation of this report will enable improved management of child welfare and protection services by allowing my Office to engage in a more informed dialogue with the HSE so that policy in this area can be improved and services better targeted and delivered. It is, however, also worth noting that as this is the first time this level of data has been compiled it is inevitable that discrepancies will show up in the data. It is only by interrogating this data that my Office and the HSE can improve its quality with a view to integrating this new level of detail into service and policy evaluation in a truly effective manner.

While the report details cases not allocated to a named social worker, it also states that the management of unallocated cases is undertaken by a social work Team Leader and / or Principal Social Worker. For children in care, unallocated cases are managed by a Team Leader and most areas have a system where families can contact the named Team Leader when difficulties arise. In the majority of social work departments, cases without an allocated social worker are also receiving input from other members of the staff in that department e.g. family support worker, child care worker or project worker. No decision has, as yet, been made regarding the publication of the report. All child abuse reports to social work departments are subject to a phased process of initial screening and assessment by a social worker under the supervision of a social work Team Leader. This process will enable some cases to be dealt with appropriately and closed, some cases to be referred to other services or agencies for appropriate interventions, some cases to be provided with further assessment and intervention and some cases to be prioritised for intervention at a later date on the basis of risk assessment. All cases in which there is an immediate and serious risk to the health or welfare of a child are provided with services.