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

203. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she intends to enhance the procedures to ensure a rapid response to reports and or suspicions of child abuse; if she has in mind any particular initiatives in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22082/13]

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

All Child Protection and Welfare referrals are managed through the HSE Children and Families Standardised Business Process.

All reports of concern for the safety and well-being of a child come into the Duty/Intake team for assessment. All staff receiving such a referral are trained in the duty system and are obliged to treat seriously all child welfare and child protection concerns whatever their source.

The report and response nature of referrals is reflected in the following process. Step 1 – the screening staff deal with the information reported and preliminary enquiries are concerned with determining an appropriate response. Step 2 – referral process – the screen step is concerned with screening out those enquiries, reports, requests for service etc that do not belong with Child Protection & Welfare Teams. Once it is agreed by the duty team leader that it is a correct referral it is allocated immediately for an Initial Assessment. Step 3 – the initial assessment is a time-limited process to allow the gathering of sufficient information on the needs and risks within a case so that informed decisions and recommendations can be made and actions that will result in better outcomes for children are taken.

The duty team leader together with members of the team will deem the information received as: level 1 – child and family must be seen immediately; level 2 – child and family must be seen within 3 days; level 3 – child and family be seen within 7 days.

In identifying Risk it is the ‘professional judgement’ of the duty team leader to assess if immediate action is required. Risk is assessed if the child is at ‘ongoing significant risk’. This is to be decided based on the information received on the referral: 1) The seriousness of the abuse reported; 2) The likely level of risk to the future safety and welfare of the child; and 3) The degree of professional confidence in the information that either the abuse has occurred and is likely to be repeated or that the child is at immediate risk. Risk analysis continues throughout the 21 days allocated to complete the assessment. All information on the extensive process is available on the HSE website under the Standardised Business Process documentation. The full implementation of the Business Process continues to enhance the processing of all referrals throughout the country.