Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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138. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to revelations in County Laois and County Offaly, if there are other areas of the country where there are concerns regarding child protection notifications that have not been processed; if he will provide details of same; if he will specify whether reviews are under way to establish if there are cases that may have been missed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18821/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Since I informed members of the issues that have arisen in the Laois/Offaly area, I have continued to receive updates from the CEO of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. I have received an action plan that addresses both the short and medium term requirements to manage the referrals that were not processed as they should have been as well as the longer term local and national management actions needed to ensure this is not repeated.

I can take some assurance that this is not a more systemic issue as the child welfare and protection services are subject to the independent inspection regime of the Health Information and Quality Authority. Since 2013, HIQA has carried out inspections of the child protection and welfare services in 11 out of 17 of Tusla's administrative areas, of which 7 were carried out in 2014. The Midlands area has not yet been inspected. These inspections are on the basis of standards designed to follow a child’s journey within the child protection system to ensure that his or her safety and welfare is being protected.

Inspections consider the full range of Tusla's child protection services, including the service planning, review and monitoring processes with the aim of ensuring that systematic approaches are in place involving good leadership, inter-agency cooperation, skilled and experienced staff, and the effective management and deployment of resources with children at the centre.

Inspection report findings to date show overall a good quality of social work service when cases are allocated. The issues of concern was the length of time some children were waiting to be allocated a social worker due to staffing issues, and in a small number of areas, concerns were outlined regarding the monitoring of risk of children waiting for an allocated social worker. As HIQA goes about its valuable work, I anticipate they may find other aspects of child protection services which require improvement. It is for that reason we have an independent inspectorate to identify issues and to apply an improving action plan on the area in question.

Tusla has also recently developed the first ever quality assurance programme for child protection services. This programme is identifying areas in need of improvement and is used to address resources and practice issues.

My Department has agreed a set of performance indicators with Tusla which are reported on monthly and quarterly and allow for a contemporary picture of how areas are managing the demands on their service. This information which is published on the Tusla website, informs both the HIQA inspection process and Tusla's quality assurance programme.

In respect of Laois/Offaly services, I welcome the speedy and appropriate response by Tusla to put in place resources to implement the action plan. I also appreciate the openness shown by the CEO of Tusla in his appearance at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. The first step has been to collate all the affected referrals and determine how best to move them forward. I have been informed that all of the referrals were known to the social work teams but only about half had recorded clearly follow up reviews or actions. I have also been informed that the number of referrals involved is much less than the 1,200 previously mentioned.

At this stage, I have not been informed of any children that were at immediate risk who did not receive an urgent response. I will refrain from giving figures until I have been informed that they have been validated. I will also give due regard to fair procedures for the individuals involved. Allowing for these restrictions, I will keep the House informed as to the progress of the action plan in the Tusla Laois/Offaly child welfare and protection services.