Written answers

Thursday, 4 July 2013

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Children in Care

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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44. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to allocate funding for increased provision of specialised services for children with severe behavioural difficulties here, such as those with very severe behavioural disorders, many of whom continue to be placed in specialist facilities outside Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32353/13]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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A very small minority of children under 18 years of age have highly specialised needs that require specialised interventions in Special Care Units (0.4% of children in care).

Special Care involves the detention of a child for his or her own welfare and protection in a Special Care Unit with on site educational and therapeutic supports. A Special Care Unit provides secure residential service to children and young people who are in need of specialised targeted intervention. Children are detained in special care if their behaviour is deemed to pose a risk to themselves. The detention, by order of the High Court of a child in a Special Care Unit is considered as a last resort, for as short a time as possible, and when other forms of residential or community care are considered to be unsuitable. Special Care Units are inspected by HIQA under Section 69 of the Child Care Act, 1991 on an annual basis, and the inspection reports are published.

A subset of this cohort do not meet the criteria for placement in Special Care facilities, or their needs are too specialised to be met in the Units and in exceptional cases, arrangements are required to be made for some of these young people to be placed into care and treatment facilities outside of the State in units that provide a specialist individually tailored mix of care and therapeutic services and/or psychiatric treatment not available in Ireland.I am advised by the HSE that there are currently 10 children in secure placements outside of the State.

The placement of Irish children in secure facilities outside of the Irish jurisdiction by Order of the Irish High Court occurs within the framework of Council Regulation (EC) – otherwise known as the Brussels 11 bis Regulation. The High Court retains oversight of these placements through regular intensive welfare review. The HSE maintains governance and oversight via its statutory obligations to children in the care of the HSE.

The HSE ensures that these placements are suitable. The units in which the children are placed are inspected and monitored by their national authorities and the HSE is attentive to the standards of care delivered in these specialised units. The level of requirement for these services is closely monitored by the HSE's National Director for Children and Family Services and my officials.

As part of the overall ongoing review of services to meet the needs of children in care, the HSE are reconfiguring some services for children with behavioural difficulties to reflect demand in keeping with best practice and international evidence.

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