Written answers

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Children in Care

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs further to the recent Health Information and Quality Authority inspection report finding with regard to the lack of suitable placements to meet the needs of some young persons in care, the steps he is taking to ensure these young persons have access to specialist supports and services and access to suitable placements promptly; if there is high level of staff expertise available in specific residential centres to meet the complex needs of some young persons; and the steps he is taking to ensure that young persons do not have to wait to access a special care placement. [40778/15]

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Since 2014, the Health Information & Quality Authority (HIQA) has inspected a number of children's residential centres with particular attention on the management of challenging behaviour exhibited by young people resident in the centres. The most recent inspection report was published on the HIQA website on the 5th November 2015.

Of the seven standards inspected in the centre, one standard was met, five required improvement and significant risk was identified in one. Some of these risks were external to the centre and could not be mitigated completely. The staff worked in partnership with the social work department, parents and other professionals to manage these risks. This was effective for some of the young people but not for others. DCYA finds, on the evidence in the report, that the staff and management showed a real commitment to the young people in their care despite the challenging behaviour displayed by the young people.

The HIQA inspection report raised the problem of a young person who, when discharged from Special Care, continued to put him/herself at risk. This young person continues to be cared for in the community with enhanced supports. Tusla has also informed me that the risk taking behaviour presented by this young person has been decreasing in the last number of weeks. A young person may only be detained in a Special Care Unit by way of a High Court Order, and only for the shortest time possible.

To address the lack of suitable placements, Tusla is developing a special care campus with a further ten places that it intends to bring on stream towards the end of 2016. It is also hoped that the many initiatives developed by Tulsa including Children and Young People's Services Committees, Family Support Networks and the Meitheal approach to addressing un-met needs, together with a newly developed and targeted commissioning strategy, will ensure investment in community based services for children and young people in need will reduce the overall need for special care places over time.

Many of the young people with the most specialist needs in our community based centres are linked in with Tusla’s Assessment, Consultation and Therapy Service (ACTS) multidisciplinary therapeutic team. Further specialist supports are also routinely made available as needed and many centres have specialist skill-sets, therapeutic modalities or links with same in their local communities to meet the varying need of the young people in their care.

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