Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

615. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he is aware of the recent drive to end profit in the social care sector in Wales (details supplied); his views on whether persons should be profiting from children in care; his further views on the need to nationalise the social care sector to end the reliance on charities; if he will support an end to profiteering from the social care sector in Ireland; and the actions his Department will take to make this happen. [29567/24]

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

Statutory responsibility for the provision of children’s alternative care services, including foster care and residential care, rests in the first instance with Tusla, as set out in the Child Care Act 1991 and the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. Tusla is independent in the performance of its duties and may exercise discretion in carrying out its statutory functions.

Section 41 of the Child and Family Act, 2013 stipulates that I, as Minister, provide guidance to Tusla in the form of the Performance Framework, which is published every three years. The Performance Framework is an opportunity to provide the Agency with policy guidance, direction and prioritisation parameters for the preparation of its corporate plan.

I am fully conscious that an over reliance on private providers in any context can bring with it certain risks, and I have been clear in the latest Performance Framework that Tusla should place a key focus on increasing overall capacity in both foster and residential care, while working to reduce reliance on private provision. Priorities 4.3 and 4.4 of the latest Performance Framework recommend that Tusla work to increase residential care capacity, and to progress commitments contained in its Strategic Plans to reduce reliance on private provision.

Tusla’s Strategic Plan for Foster Care Services for Children and Young People 2022 – 2025, and their Strategic Plan for Residential Care Services for Children and Young People 2022 -2025 form part of Tusla’s overall Alternative Care Strategy across the continuum of care. The implementation plan for this strategy and regular progress updates are shared with my Department.

Tusla’s Strategic Plans for Alternative Care propose significant expenditure in support of service improvements over the period 2022-2025. These include, but are not limited to, Capital expenditure to build capacity in residential care and to reverse a reliance on private provision. In this regard, Tusla’s Strategic Plan for Residential Care Services for Children and Young People 2022-2025 outlines an ambition to incrementally reverse the Agency’s dependency on private residential care, increasing its public residential capacity by an additional 104 beds, with a view to achieving 50:50 private:public provision.

Tusla also publishes yearly Business Plans, setting out detailed goals which will enable it to make progress on the priorities as set out in the Performance Framework. Objective 3.8 of Tusla’s Business Plan for 2024 sets out the goal of opening four additional Tusla-owned residential care units, providing sixteen additional beds.

Contained within Recommendation 3 in Tusla’s Strategic Plan for Foster Care Services, Tusla has committed to reviewing the use of private foster care providers and to develop a clear scope for the use of such agencies.

Further, in respect of efforts to support Tusla to maintain the number of foster carers, I was very pleased to secure, on behalf of Tusla, a significant increase in the rates of the Foster Care Allowance in Budget 2024.

I very much welcome and support the outlined commitments by Tusla in respect of the use of private provision with alternative care services.