Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent of parental and sibling access to those young persons placed in out of State secure facilities; if all reasonable costs incurred are covered by the Health Service Executive; if she will provide a representative past case including diagnosis, previous in-State placement, duration of overseas placement and where now; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46790/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Under the Child Care Act, 1991, the Health Service Executive has a duty to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care or protection. The policy of the HSE is to place children in care settings, preferably in foster care, as close as possible to their home and community. There were 6,258 children in the care of the state in July 2012, the vast majority of whom were in foster care (5,739) and general residential care (339).

A very small minority of young people under 18 years of age have highly specialised needs arising from severe behaviour difficulties, due to their childhood experiences or in some cases as a result of injury, accident or disability. The care needs of these young people are generally met by directly provided residential services or services commissioned by the HSE within Ireland. For this small number of young people, the HSE is on occasion, in exceptional cases, required to make arrangements for their placement in care and treatment facilities outside of the State, primarily in the UK, to allow for access to an individually tailored mix of care and highly-specialised therapeutic services and psychiatric treatment not available in this country. This is done on as infrequent a basis as possible and only where such placement is considered to be in the best interest of the child. These placements are made in line with the HSE National Protocol for Special Arrangements and are made under the order and supervision of the High Court.

The Child Care Regulations 1995 apply to all children in the care of the HSE. These regulations provide inter-alia that 'a health board shall satisfy itself in respect of each relevant residential centre that appropriate arrangements are in place to facilitate reasonable access and contact between children residing in the centre and their parents, relatives, friends, or any other persons who, in the opinion of the board, have a bona-fide interest in the children' . The HSE apply this obligation to children placed out of State in secure facilities, unless the Court Ordered Care Order under which the child has been placed stipulates that it is not in the child's best interests.

Under the National Standards for Children's Residential Centres, visits from family members and friends are encouraged. Where a young person has lost contact with family, social worker and staff members actively try to re-establish contact and arrangements are made for supervision of visits if necessary. Parents are kept informed about events in their child's life and are invited to participate in significant events and appointments. Where a young person does not have contact with their family the supervising social worker and staff explain the reasons clearly and these are documented in the care plan.

The HSE has advised me that as of 22 October 2012, there were seven young people detained in out of State secure placements. Where children are placed abroad they remain in the care of the State, they have an allocated social worker who visits them in their placement, they have a care plan and this is reviewed within the statutory framework. All units in which children are placed are subject to the regulatory and inspection framework of that jurisdiction and HSE Children and Families Services makes itself aware of any reports prior to placing a child abroad. As the Deputy will appreciate, for reasons of confidentially it would be inappropriate to provide detailed information regarding these young people. However, I am advised by the HSE that family access has been facilitated by the HSE in all except one of these cases, where the HSE offer of access has not been taken up to date. The HSE pay the costs of flights, ancillary travel expenses and overnight expenses where necessary for the child's social worker and family member/s.