Written answers

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Children in Care

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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485. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children who went missing from care in each of the past three years by Tusla region in tabular form; the percentage of children in each category who were subsequently located; the number of children who are missing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29085/18]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I have been informed by Tusla, The Child and Family Agency, that the data requested by the Deputy is not collated centrally at this time.

Tusla social workers develop an Absence Management Plan for children in care in conjunction with their foster carers, residential staff and family, where appropriate. These are used to assess the risk in the event of a child going missing and the appropriate action to be taken. A child in care is considered to be missing when his or her whereabouts are unknown and the Absence Management Plan indicates concern for the child’s safety. It should be remembered that most children in care live in family settings in the community and, like all teenagers, will have curfews to return home.

As children and adolescent's needs differ, there will be an individual judgement made in relation to how late a child may be in returning to their foster carers or residential centre. The length of time alone cannot be used to determine whether a child qualifies as missing from care, rather it is a combination of the time period with all other circumstances of the case that must be considered. For example, if a child is not allowed unsupervised time outside the home and cannot be found in the home, this will be counted as an incident of a child missing from care regardless of the period of time involved.

Tusla operates a procedure which records each missing from care incident and liaises with An Garda Síochána as necessary. With the development of the National Child Care Information System, Tusla will be in a position to provide more detailed information, as the project develops.

I have asked Tusla to provide me with detailed information regarding any child that is currently missing from care, and I will revert to the Deputy with that information.

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