Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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581. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the specific actions that will be taken by the Child and Family Agency in 2014 to increase special care provision because of the reported waiting lists for children at risk who have met the criteria for admission to special care units but are unable to obtain a place in any special care unit. [2808/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Child and Family Agency (the Agency) seeks to provide the highest quality of Care at its Special Care Units in Dublin, Cork and Limerick. Standards of Care provision are constantly under review by a designated Monitoring Officer specifically assigned to this role. Children are place in Special Care under the jurisdiction of the High Court and all cases are reviewed on a monthly basis by the High Court. These Units are inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) with the level of care being provided in the three Special Care Units having been endorsed by the most recent 2012 HIQA reports.

The Agency has informed me it is currently implementing a capital development programme for Special Care services in order to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to meet the needs of children requiring this specialised type of Care. The first phase of the programme is underway with improvements to facilities in Dublin completed and the extensive refurbishment of the Unit in Limerick also complete. Planning is well underway for phase 2 of the programme which will double the capacity of the service to 34 beds in early 2016.

The need to provide Special Care placements outside the jurisdiction into the future cannot be avoided in a very small number of cases in order to ensure the best interests of some children with specialised additional needs. The referral of children abroad for specialised therapeutic interventions is an established feature within our health and social care system and decisions in each case are made in the best interests of the individual.

The Units in which the children are placed are inspected and regulated by their national authorities and the Agency is attentive to the standards of care delivered in these specialised Units. The level of requirement of these services for children is closely monitored by the Agency. Currently there are 17 children in placement in Special Care in HSE Units and 10 children are placed abroad on the basis of High Court Detention Orders.

ACTS (Assessment, Consultation, Therapeutic Services) is a new national specialised clinical service which is being developed by the Agency to provide multidisciplinary consultation, assessment and focused interventions to young people who have high risk behaviours associated with complex clinical needs. These therapeutic inputs are provided in a flexible, timely and responsive manner with a focus on improving outcomes for young people and their families.

ACTS also supports other professionals in their ongoing work with young people and their families. This includes on-site therapeutic services to the national high support, special care units and the children detention schools. It also provides assessment, consultation and focused intervention services in the community for children at risk of placement in high support, special care or detention.

ACTS is a multidisciplinary service which includes psychology, social work, speech and language therapy, counselling and social care. It is supported by contractual sessions from child and forensic psychiatry. ACTS is led by a management team consisting of the national manager and three heads of discipline whose central responsibility is the implementation of systems of clinical governance. This is done through effective planning, implementation and evaluation of treatment programmes and protocol driven interventions. It also involves the provision of high quality clinical supervision and monitoring of professional development needs of staff. ACTS is based in Dublin with regional clinics in Cork and Limerick.