John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of child protection teams that are short of staff as a result of the moratorium on recruitment; the number of children at risk because of these staff shortages; if she is confident that those recorded as being at risk on the risk registers are an accurate reflection of the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15130/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I have statutory responsibility for the child welfare and protection services. My colleague, the Minister for Health in conjunction with the Minister for State with responsibility for Disability, Equality, Mental Health and Older People has responsibility for mental health team and disability teams. I work closely with both colleagues, as I do with all members of the Government in relation to children's issues. However, the detailed service information sought relating to disability and mental health would be most appropriately addressed to the Minister with direct responsibility for those services.

Child protection teams are based geographically in the local health area office. During 2010 and 2011, 260 additional social workers were recruited and were assigned across the country to child protection teams and to 'children in care' teams. The latest data available from the HSE shows that in January 2012 the total number of social workers employed in Children and Family Services providing services to children at risk and in care was 1,220 whole time equivalents.

It is important to stress that there is no moratorium on filling social work posts within the overall public sector numbers. The National Director of Children and Families Services will apply his discretion over the course of the year to the filling of vacancies, subject to meeting overall employment targets and on the basis that services are being delivered within available resources.

Child Protection Referrals

The Deputy refers to cases being recorded on 'risk registers'. The Deputy may be referring to the establishment by the HSE of a 'National Child Protection Register' as part of their Child Protection Notification System. The Child Protection Notification System records children where, following an assessment and case conference, the view is that there is a child protection risk. I have been assured that all referrals of child welfare and protection are assessed by the duty or intake team. Those cases that are identified as most serious or urgent are allocated immediately to a social worker. Other referrals may benefit from a family support service, while some cases may be referred to other services. The number of referrals to the team will always be significantly greater than those on the Child Protection Notification System as the majority of referrals are not assessed as involving a child protection risk.

HSE Information Management

Since taking office last year, I have been dissatisfied with the quality and accuracy of information available from the HSE in relation to child protection as well as the HSE's capacity to provide timely and meaningful information. I am pleased to inform you that significant progress is now being made by the HSE to remedy this situation. A major information technology project, the National Child Care Information System, the NCCIS, has now gone to tender.

The NCCIS will be the central system supporting Social Work services. As a social work case management system, it will be used to record and store the case history of every child and other clients of the service. Management information will be derived automatically from the case management system. The aim of the NCCIS project is to identify and procure an easy to use technology solution to support this type of case recording and to automatically provide management information. A first step was to develop agreed and consistent definitions and business processes across all social work offices. In this regard, a national standardised business process has been rolled out nationally. This will ensure that definitions used are consistent, for example to ensure the number of recorded referrals relates to individual children and not families. I am confident that the process being led by Gordon Jeyes, the HSE National Director of Children and Families Services will deliver the information needed.