Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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350. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the criteria governing applications for secure-special residential care; the number of applications for secure care that have been made by social work departments to the national admissions and discharge committee in the past 12 months; the number of secure care beds available at any one time within the jurisdiction; the number of children who meet the criteria for secure care by the national admissions and discharge committee but who, because of a lack of spaces, are not in secure care for vital therapeutic interventions. [10271/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Special care is intended as a short term secure care placement in a therapeutic environment with the intention of returning the child to a community or family based setting as soon as possible. Special care is used to address the risk of harm that may be caused to a child's life, health, safety, development or welfare by their behaviour. Children are admitted to Special Care following a successful application to the Child and Family Agency's Special Care Admissions Committee and then to the High Court for a special care order, in line with the provisions of the Child Care Act 1991, as amended.

The criteria for admission to a special care unit are the age of the child, the concerns and risk assessment of the child, and a risk management plan. The age range for admission is 11 to 17 years. The concern and risk assessment must show evidence of the risk of harm that is posed by the child's behaviour. The risk management plan must show that the admission to special care will benefit the child and is being sought as other interventions or alternate placements are not able to meet the specific needs of the child. Documentation to support and provide evidence for the application are also considered and includes a special care application form, views of the child and the parents/guardians, the history leading to the application, the child's social history and details of previous placements.

The current capacity of the three special care units is 17 places and as of the 31 December 2014, 16 children were in special care placements. The Agency has informed me that for 2014, there were 67 referrals, 16 re-referrals which gives a total of 83 referrals for special care interventions in the year. I have been informed that currently there are 7 young people who have been approved but are awaiting a special care intervention.