Written answers

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Child Abuse

Photo of Colm BrophyColm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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484. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of the work of the Ferns 5 national steering committee and the implementation of the recommendation of the Ferns 5 report. [38329/16]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Ferns 5 National Steering Committee for Sexual Abuse Services was established to facilitate and promote integration and coordination of the key stakeholder agencies in the development of sexual abuse services for children in Ireland. The final report of the Steering Committee, which was published in 2014, included a Children’s Service Framework to include policies and procedures and standards for the following:

- prioritising the safeguarding of children and integration with child protection and criminal justice agencies;

- the establishment of a child sexual abuse team in each of four regions with links into each area as a means of ensuring local access to services, and outward links to referring agencies including, child protection services, An Garda Síochána and the probation and prison services;

- the application of a core and cluster model with dedicated core staff for each of the specialist centres and additional staffing being provided for on a secondment basis from other local services.

- the provision of a national service;

- employment of a range of disciplines for the core service including clinical psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists and family therapists with access to child and adolescent psychiatrists on an on-going basis;

- a multi-agency National Steering Committee.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency is currently leading a national, multi-agency process to implement a national service model for sexual abuse services for children and their families which includes; An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive, the Children’s Hospital Group, the Probation Service and Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) - a non-Governmental organisation.

The establishment of multi-agency service provision for children and young people who exhibit sexually harmful behaviour was set out in Tusla’s 2016 Business Plan. A principal psychologist and a principal social worker have been recruited and the recruitment of a senior psychologist and a senior social worker is underway. Implementation teams are currently being established in the four regions. Further development of the service will be planned for in the context of the 2017 Business Plan.

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