Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she has identified the full scope and extent of the responsibilities of her Department including the budgetary requirements over the next three years; the degree to which she has identified any shortcomings in the system in regard to the well-being and protection of children including early warning systems and the provision of stress-testing of the services to ensure an adequacy of response to meet the challenges of the modern era; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17258/13]

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

My Department was set up to drive the delivery of key commitments in relation to children and young people. The Department was established in June 2011 with a mandate to put in place a unified framework of policy, legislation and provision across Government in respect of children and young people.

The responsibilities of my Department encompass a wide range of policy and service activity, both direct and indirect, for children and young people in Ireland. It has a complex mandate, comprised of a number of separate, but interrelated strands including: the direct provision of a range of universal and targeted services; ensuring high-quality arrangements are in place for focused interventions dealing with child welfare and protection, family support, adoption, school attendance and reducing youth crime; the harmonisation of policy and provision across Government and with a wide range of stakeholders to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.

As outlined in my Department's Statement of Strategy, in order to achieve its goals, my Department works in close partnership with other Government departments, statutory agencies and non-governmental organisations on a range of cross-cutting issues in relation to both policy and provision as they relate to children and young people. The scope of this collaboration includes, but is not limited to, the following Department of Education and Skills (e.g. early childhood education, numeracy/literacy and skills development); Department of Justice and Equality (e.g. crime prevention, community sanctions, detention, diversion and equality); Department of Health (e.g. disability; health promotion, including nutrition and drugs policy); Health Service Executive (e.g. child welfare and protection, care and social services); Department of Social Protection (e.g. social inclusion, income support and the activation agenda); Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (e.g. employment creation and youth entrepreneurship); Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (e.g. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Council of Europe measures); Department of Environment, Community and Local Government (e.g. initiatives involving sustainable development and communities).

Funding requirements and how resources should be prioritised and allocated across each area of Government spending are generally considered as part of the annual estimates cycle and budgetary process. It would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time on any future decisions that may be taken by Government on the expenditure allocations for programmes and services falling within the Vote of my Department. However, my objective will be to realise funding allocations that reflect expenditure policy priorities and that sufficient resources are directed towards those areas of greatest impact on children and young people.

The commitment to establish a new Child and Family Agency is at the heart of the Government's reform of child and family services. The new Agency will assume responsibility for Children and Family Services, currently provided by the HSE, and the Family Support Agency. It will have a workforce of approximately 4,000 staff, and a combined existing budget of over €590 million. The Agency will be headed by Gordon Jeyes, as the Chief Executive designate, who will be supported by a senior management team.

In order to achieve genuine improvements for children and families, the Agency will have a broader focus than child protection. Prevention, early intervention, family support and therapeutic & care interventions are all key to the provision of integrated multidisciplinary services for children and families based on identified need.

It is my intention that the new Agency will address the persistent issues which have been raised regarding the standardisation of services, communication, coordination and sharing of risk assessment, management and treatment for many of the children and families with the most complex needs. At the same time, the Agency will have a role in supporting families - providing less complex, less intrusive and less expensive responses which have a preventive function.

The new Child and Family Agency and the wider transformation of children's services represents one of the largest, and most ambitious, areas of public sector of reform embarked upon by this Government.