merrion street

Children & Youth Affairs Minister Frances Fitzgerald today published the Report of the Task Force on the Child and Family Support Agency.

Publishing the report, the Minister described it as the foundation for a “revolution in child protection and family services”.

In her response, Minister Fitzgerald states:

The new agency will bring a dedicated focus to child protection and family support for the first time in the history of the State.

Key reforms to be progressed by the Agency include:

• The creation of multidisciplinary local teams.
• The streamlining of local services under one local manager.
• The establishment of a single, consistent mechanism for assessment, referrals and tracking supported a new child protection notification system

Minister Fitzgerald welcomed the report prepared by the Task Force, chaired by Ms. Maureen Lynott, and thanked them for their hard work and commitment on producing such a comprehensive report.

This report is a major step in resolving the long-established systemic issues that the Independent Child Death Review Group outlined last month. The report will guide the work of the Agency, which will be led by CEO Designate Gordon Jeyes. I look forward to discussions with my Ministerial colleagues, existing service providers and interested parties on progressing legislation to establish the new Child and Family Support Agency in 2013. I am pleased to announce that this week the Cabinet approved the drafting of legislation to establish this new Agency and for a new reality in service provision for children and families.

The Minister added:

I have increased the budget for 2012 and recruited 60 further social workers; and as this week’s latest figures indicate that the filling of vacancies, which have arisen since the start of this year, has been proceeding and the total number of child and family social workers is increasing. Although, as this report makes clear, we must shift from an assumption that all child protection problems can be solved by social workers alone, to an understanding that delivery of child and family services is about blending mental health interventions, primary care, public health nursing, youth justice, domestic violence supports, community outreach, child protection and child welfare as well as numerous other functions into one efficient, coherent service.

The Minister concluded saying:

We will dispense with layers of bureaucracy; and establish direct lines of accountability, from area manager to CEO. Under the new Agency we will ensure we collect, collate and then utilise real-time data on demands and performance so as to better manage service provision and to better allocate resources.

Minister Fitzgerald spoke to MerrionStreet.ie at the launch of the report this morning: