Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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406. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the extent to which she is in contact with the various voluntary statutory and support services throughout the country with a view to ensuring the identification of areas of particular need; the extent to which she is confident that such needs can be met on an on-going basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48297/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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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).

While responsibility for support services for children with extra needs will remain with the Departments of Health and Education and Skills, as appropriate, my Department will continue to work closely with those Departments.

The 2014 estimate includes a net allocation of €449m for my Department which represents an increase of €15m over the 2013 allocation and this clearly demonstrates the continuing commitment of this Government to the ongoing development of quality and effective services to support children and families.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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407. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she is satisfied that adequate guidelines exist to ensure that best practice is strictly observed in all cases where children or teenagers are deemed to be at risk and need to be placed in care [48299/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Children First National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children, which I published in 2011, provides clarity and guidance for individuals and organisations in identifying and responding appropriately to child abuse and neglect. It also sets out what organisations that care for or work with children should do to ensure they are safe whilst in the care of the organisation. The Deputy will be aware that I published the Draft Heads and General Scheme for the Children First Bill 2012 in April 2012 and immediately referred the Heads of Bill to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children for consideration and advice. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children published their report in July 2012. A number of submissions were received as part of the Committee's consultation process. Overall there was a welcome that the legislation would increase the focus on child protection. The contributions in the main came from organisations already implementing Children First.

In parallel with the development of legislative proposals to put Children First on a statutory footing, significant work has been undertaken to achieve full and consistent implementation of the revised Guidance. I have established a Children First Implementation Inter-Departmental Group (CFIDG) to bring central government oversight to the implementation process. The direct responsibility for implementation rests at organisation level in line with the Guidance and the proposed legislation.

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. 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.

A child can be placed in care either voluntarily or by court order. In the case of the former, this happens with the consent of the parents / guardian. Where consent is not forthcoming, the HSE is obliged to make an application to court, and the criteria set out in the Child Care Act, 1991, in respect of the relevant order are strictly applied.

Once a child has been taken into care there are a number of national standards in place including The National Standards for Foster Care 2003 and the National Standards for Residential Care . 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.