Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 47: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to develop guidelines for multi-agency involvement with families and children. [15121/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is leading an initiative to develop and implement a planning model for local interagency working to improve outcomes for children. This is known as the Working Together for Children initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to work towards better developmental outcomes for children through more effective integration of policies and services in particular through the Children's Services Committees at local level.

Children's Services Committees bring together a diverse group of agencies in local county areas to engage in joint planning of services for children. These include representatives from the HSE, local authorities, An Garda Síochána, VECs, National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, Irish Primary Principals Network, NEWB, and other organisations who provide services to children and young people. There are 10 in place with an additional 6 in the preparatory stage of set up. My objective is to have 20 committees by the end of 2012.

My Department has developed a number of guidance supports for the Children's Services Committees to assist in their development. These include a toolkit which provides advice on the composition of a committee, membership, roles and information and guidance on how to develop a children and young people's plan for their area. A Governance Framework deals with matters such as national and local governance structures and reporting arrangements.

The initiative is overseen by the National Children's Strategy Implementation Group which is responsible for developing Children's Services Committees as a national initiative and for providing guidance to the committees on issues that arise in relation to effective collaborative working at local level in support of children and young people's better outcomes. Information on the toolkit and other supports for the committees and the work of the National Children's Strategy Implementation Group is available on my department's website, www.dcya.gov.ie .