Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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402. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she is satisfied that the rights of parents and children are adequately provided for and preserved in all cases where children have been put into care over the past four years; the extent to which any particular issues have been brought to her attention; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48293/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Under the , has a statutory duty to promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and protection. If a child is in need of care and protection and is unlikely to receive it at home, then the HSE has a duty to ensure they receive appropriate care. In the performance of this function, the HSE must "take such steps as it considers requisite to identify children who are not receiving adequate care and protection and co-ordinate information from all relevant sources relating to children; having regard to the rights and duties of parents, whether under the Constitution or otherwise - (i) regard the welfare of the child as the first and paramount consideration, and (ii) in so far as is practicable, give due consideration, having regard to his age and understanding, to the wishes of the child; have regard tot he principle that it is generally in the best interests of a child to be brought up in his own family".

Once a child is in State care there are secondary legislation instruments and National Standards to protect their rights and guide with greater precision how that is to be achieved, for example:

- The system of protection that HSE may offer is highly codified in law and covers a range of family support through to care arrangements and also provides for both voluntary arrangements, entered into by parents and guardians, as well as court-ordered arrangements for the alternative care. These latter arrangements are determined by the court authorities having regard to the various rights of both children and parents set out in the Constitution.Specifically, as regards the views of the child, Section 26 of the Child Care Act, 1991 provides for the appointment of a Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) in respect of child care proceedings where a child is not party to those proceedings and where the court is satisfied that it is in the child’s best interests to have a GAL appointed. A GAL is appointed at the discretion of the Court and all fees, including legal fees, are paid by the HSE. Their primary function is to provide a voice for the child in Court where the child is not party to the care proceedings. They promote the child’s best interests to the Court.

- A child protection social worker assigned to a child placed in a care setting has a duty to prepare and regularly review the care plan for the child. Intrinsic to this process is ensuring that the wishes of the child and his or her family are considered, that access and contact is facilitated between the child, parents and siblings (unless there is a court agreed reason not to do so), and that full engagement takes place with the child and their family with a view to planning the child’s return home. A significant amount of work takes place between social workers and parents to create a situation where a child could return home, including referrals for parent(s) for relationship counselling, substance misuse or mental health issues.

- The National Standards for Foster Care 2003 state that “children and young people in foster care are encouraged and facilitated to maintain and develop family relationship and friendships”. They also state “the families of children in foster care are involved in their care, in partnership with social workers and foster carers unless this is detrimental to the well being of the children, in which case the reasons for excluding them are recorded on the case files”.

- The National Standards for Residential Care state that” visits from family members, significant others and friends are encouraged and facilitated in private”. They go on to state “where young person has lost contact with a parent , family or significant others the supervising social worker and staff members actively seek to re establish contact and to identify key people within the extended family to provide support”.

- Access and contact by relatives to a child in care is based on the needs of the child. In most cases access to family is actively promoted and encouraged unless the access is posing a risk to the child or is causing the child distress. A child's view with regard to access is also sought where age appropriate and this view is to be respected.

In addition to the role of the courts, there are further measures to monitor the application of standards. Currently HIQA inspects HSE children’s residential care and child protection services and all foster care service under the Child Care Act, 1991 and the Health Act, 2007, and reports on findings to the Minister. HIQA publishes inspection reports on its website. The HSE inspect and register children’s residential centres run by the private and voluntary sectors. All inspections are undertaken against National Standards developed by the Department of Health prior to HIQA’s establishment. This process has revised and will continue to raise specific local quality improvement changes but will also contribute to corporate learning regarding the provision of these services.

Other important initiatives to inform our understanding include, for example, publication of the interim report of the Child Care Law Reporting Project (CCLRP). This is a project which I have supported since its inception, and made the relevant regulations to allow the attendance of the project personnel in the courts. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is one of the co-funders of the project, along with Atlantic Philanthropies and One Foundation.

The report is a crucial first step in improving the transparency of the conduct of child care proceedings, and informing the public and policy makers of how children are protected through the operation of the provisions of the Child Care Act 1991. While this is an interim report, there is a significant amount of valuable information contained in the report which can be used to inform policy making on an on-going basis.

The CCLRP will provide invaluable information about the operation of the Child Care Act, which is the mechanism used by the HSE, in exceptional circumstances, and with the welfare of the child as the paramount consideration, to make applications to court to take children into care. These are very serious decisions, with long term impacts on the child and the family and the more information that is available about the process, while protecting the identity of vulnerable children and families, the better we can ensure the welfare and protection of children.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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403. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children taken into care on a monthly basis in each of the past four years to date; the most commonly recognised reason given and sustained; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48294/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I have been advised by the HSE that 2,372 children were taken into care in 2009, 2,105 children were taken into care in 2010 and 2,248 children were taken into care in 2011. A breakdown of this data is not available on a monthly basis.

There were 2,070 admissions to care in 2012. The primary reason for children to be admitted to care in 2012 were serious concerns of child welfare 53.9%, neglect 28.6%, physical abuse 8.4%, emotional abuse 7.4% and sexual abuse 1.7%. There is significant cross over between child welfare and neglect. Details of the reasons for admission to care in each of the years 2009-2011 is currently being collated and I will arrange for this to be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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404. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of emergency places available to her Department for the placement of children deemed to be at risk at any particular time over the past three years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48295/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE provides a range of services aimed at addressing emergency situations in the area of child welfare and protection. In the main, these emergency situations arise out of hours.

At present the Health Service Executive provides out-of-hours emergency services for children at risk in the greater Dublin area through the Crisis Intervention Service (CIS), and outside the greater Dublin area through the Emergency Place of Safety Service (EPSS). The Crisis Intervention Service provides out-of-hours emergency social work assistance to young people aged under 18 years. The service operates across the greater Dublin area (Counties Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow). Referrals are made by service providers outside of normal working hours i.e. Gardaí, hospital and ambulance service personnel.

The Emergency Place of Safety Service operates outside the greater Dublin area, whereby Gardaí can access an emergency placement for children found to be at risk out-of-hours. This service involves the placement of a child in a family setting until the next working day, when the local social work service assumes responsibility for the case. As part of this service Gardaí have access to advice and information from a non-HSE social work off-site resource which is provided on a contract basis. The service is designed to ensure that children presenting as 'at risk' outside of normal working hours are provided with an appropriate emergency place of safety, a foster care placement, thereby reducing or eliminating social admissions of children in an acute hospital setting.

Five Rivers Ireland (FRI) is the company that is currently providing this emergency place of safety service on behalf of the HSE. The purpose of this service is to provide placements to children where Gardaí have removed children from their homes under Section 12 of the Child Care Act, outside of normal working hours, on an emergency basis.

Since the service commenced in June 2009 there has been a steady increase in the number of calls to the CIS and EPSS and an increase in the number of children placed. This table provides further information:

In addition, the Liberty House service in Cork is run by the HSE for young people out of home and at the risk of becoming homeless. It operates through a community based multi-disciplinary team which includes accommodation workers, public health nurse and a psychologist. The service works with young people in Cork up to the age of 18 and where necessary continues to provide support to those over 18 years of age.

Pilot out of hours social work programme

In implementing a recommendation from the Ryan report and as part of the ongoing ‘change agenda’ in Child and Family services the HSE is committed to developing the capacity of our child protection services to appropriately and effectively address the needs of children who present in emergency situations outside of normal working hours alongside the work of CIS and EPSS.

The HSE has piloted two out-of-hours pilot projects, one in Donegal and the other in Cork. The Donegal pilot project commenced in mid 2011 and the Cork project in the third quarter of last year. Both projects involve the provision by local HSE staff of social work support out-of-hours where deemed necessary by Gardaí.

Both projects were internally evaluated by the HSE, which then commissioned an independent external assessment, undertaken by Trinity College Dublin. The HSE has reviewed the recommendations of the Evaluation Report and is committed to further development and expansion of the service subject to resourcing and the terms of the Croke Park agreement. In this regard, a proposal for a National Children and Families Services Emergency Out of Hours Social Work Service has been prepared. My Department has been informed by the HSE that talks with the relevant staff representative association are also underway.