Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

188. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his response to the finding (details supplied) in the Ombudsman for Children's report Safety and Welfare of Children in Direct Provision. [25165/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Report of the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) “Safety and Welfare of Children in Direct Provision” and my Department accepts its recommendations in full.

The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) of my Department has embarked upon a series of actions, planned for the short to medium term which will build upon existing work to ensure the recommendations of the OCO will be implemented as quickly as possible.

IPAS and Tusla have committed to increased collaboration and coordination in the coming period. IPAS will continue to work with Tusla during 2021 to develop interagency protocols and operating procedures that will support the sharing of case information between Tusla and IPAS and to track and monitor referrals and cases from beginning to end.

A new Resident Welfare Team has recently been established within IPAS to case-manage individual families, and single residents, identified as having special reception needs and to ensure that those needs continue to be identified and addressed in the most appropriate way possible. The Resident Welfare Team will be a multi-disciplinary team with experts from the fields of education, health and childcare seconded. Additional resources have been sanctioned to support the work of this team and recruitment is underway.

All existing centres and all new centres are required to develop a child safeguarding statement. IPAS will work with Tusla to ensure compliance with child safeguarding statements and Children First legislation. An IPAS Audit of compliance will also take place this year in cooperation with Tusla. IPAS will be ensuring that child safeguarding statements are translated and made available to all residents. Additional child safety training will also be rolled out to all centre managers as COVID restrictions allow.

I note the discrepancy in the figures mentioned in the report referenced by the Deputy. The difference between the number of cases recorded by IPAS as referred to Tusla and the number of cases recorded by Tusla relating to children resident in IPAS accommodation between April 2017 and July 2020 arises because the Child and Family Services unit of IPAS is only notified of referrals that have originated from IPAS dedicated and temporary accommodation centres and from the Emergency Reception and Orientation Centres (EROCs) for Programme Refugees. IPAS is not notified of individual referrals made to Tusla by schools, hospitals, sports clubs and members of the public as IPAS is not the designated authority to which such reports should be made. Nor is it appropriate for IPAS officials or centre management to be party to details of such family matters where it has no legislative authority.

Since the recent publication of the report, Tusla has committed to publishing its Direct Provision Policy for 2021 for all staff working with children and families living in Direct Provision accommodation. The Policy states that each Direct Provision accommodation centre will have a named point of contact within the relevant Tusla area.

In addition, Tusla is reviewing its IT system to plan for the next stage of the development of the National Child Care Information System (NCCIS) and consideration will be given to enable referrals for children living in IPAS accommodation, along with other specified groups of children, to be tracked on a national basis.