· Reforming Child Protection - Additional funding of €6.7 million in 2014 to support reform of child welfare and protection services;· Implementing the Pre-School Quality Agenda – funding of €4.5 million to:
o Recruit additional pre-school inspectors
o Establish a pre-school mentoring service
o Support staff training
· Tacking Child Poverty - Additional €1.5m for implementation of the Area Based Childhood (ABC) programme, a joint initiative between DCYA and Atlantic Philanthropies to improve outcomes for children in disadvantaged communities. Almost €30 million will be spent on this initiative during the period 2013-2016.
· Whole-of-Government support for Children and Families also evident in free GP care for children aged 5 years and under and in maintenance of Child Benefit rates.
Tuesday 15th October 2013
Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, today announced the 2014 Estimate for her Department which includes additional funding of €15m for a range of key services in support of children and families.
Commenting on the Government’s overall Estimates package, Minister Fitzgerald stated: “The 2014 Estimate demonstrates that, while operating within difficult Budgetary constraints, this Government is strongly committed to delivering important reforms and service developments to support Ireland’s children and families.”
The Minister noted the 2014 Estimate for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs which includes targeted investment aimed at reforming child protection services and supporting the ongoing implementation of the Minster’s Pre-School Quality Agenda.
The Minister also welcomed the protection of payment rates for Child Benefit and the major announcement that free GP care will be extended to children aged five and under.
The 2014 Estimate for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs includes a net allocation of €449 million for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. This represents an increase of almost €15 million over its 2013 allocation and consists of €414 million in current expenditure and €35 million in capital expenditure.
Reforming Child Protection
The new Child and Family Agency is due to be established in January 2014. Minister Fitzgerald stated: “The establishment of this Agency delivers on a key commitment under the Programme for Government and represents the most ambitious and comprehensive reform of child protection, early intervention and family support services ever undertaken in Ireland”.
Minister Fitzgerald noted the provision of an additional €6.7m (€12m in a full year) will support the programme of reform for child welfare and protection services which will be implemented by the Agency next year.
The Minister said that: “this additional investment will support ongoing reforms which are aimed at improving the quality and capacity of child protection and welfare services, in response to the historic legacy of failings highlighted by numerous statutory enquires; and in response to increased demand in child protection referrals which jumped by nearly a third in 2012 to over 40,000 referrals,”.
In addition to the budget of the NEWB and FSA, the budget of HSE Children and Family Services will transfer in full to the new Agency. The latter budget of approximately €535m is currently included in the HSE Estimate and has been adjusted for the savings associated with the Haddington Road Agreement.
Implementing the Pre-School Quality Agenda
Minister Fitzgerald announced the allocation of €4.5m to support implementation of her 8-point Pre-School Quality Agenda which the Minister said sought “to support and assure higher standards in pre-school services through supporting the efforts of providers and their staff to deliver improved and more reliable quality; and to respond to concerns raised by parents.”
“Improvements in pre-school quality standards and staff qualifications are pivotal, essential, and inescapable.”.
“During the rapid expansion of pre–school services over recent decades the quality of services has received insufficient emphasis. As Minister for Children and Youth Affairs I am putting in place the support and regulatory structures which should have been put in place years ago.”
o Additional staff will be recruited to the Pre-School Inspectorate of the new Child and Family Agency to address gaps which currently exist in the inspection system (cost: €1.1m)
o A new mentoring service for pre-school services will be introduced. The service will employ graduates in early childhood care and education who will work directly with services to improve quality including assisting services to implement the Siolta framework and Aistear curriculum for 0 to 6 years. (cost: €2.5m in 2014)
o Training support will be provided to assist staff already working in the sector to meet the new qualification requirements being introduced from September 2015. (cost: €1.5m in 2014).
The total Exchequer funding for these provisions is €4.5m. The Minister noted that: “through investing in the Quality Agenda the Government is laying the solid foundation for a further expansion of universal childcare provision in Ireland, to support children and support families.”.
The other childcare programmes operated by the Department are all being continued with a total funding provision in 2014 of some €260m.
This includes maintenance of the universal free pre-school year and other targeted childcare supports for low income parents.
During 2013 the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has worked in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection to pilot an After-School Childcare Scheme to support labour activation. Childcare places were made available to low income parents of primary school children, identified by the Department of Social Protection as qualifying for the scheme. The take-up of this scheme has been lower than expected to date. While continuing to implement the After-School Childcare scheme, the funds remaining are being used to support the Quality Agenda for Pre-School Services and introduce additional childcare supports targeted at participants in Community Employment (CE) schemes. This will involve provision of part-time childcare places to Community Employment participants, particularly those with pre-school children, prioritised by the Department of Social Protection. The new scheme will be an additional strand of the Childcare Education and Training Support (CETS) scheme which is already implemented for qualifying Solas and Education Training Board trainees. The details of the new scheme will be finalised by both Departments in the coming months with a view to its introduction in early 2014.
Minister Fitzgerald said: “This Government has maintained and expanded childcare provision in each of its Budgets. These new initiatives demonstrate the importance of working together at Government level to promote employment and to support children’s development.”.
Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme
The increase of €1.5m in funding for the Area Based Childhood (ABC) programme will bring to €4m the State funding to be invested in this initiative in 2014. In addition, a further €5 million will be made available by Atlantic Philanthropies. The ABC programme will implement prevention and early intervention supports for children and families in areas of high disadvantage. It builds upon pilot programmes already implemented in 3 sites (Tallaght, Ballymun and Darndale) in the areas of in literacy, speech and language, parenting, health and pro-social behaviour. In the coming weeks the selection process for new sites will conclude and the programme will be implemented in further locations. The aim of the ABC programme is to break the cycle of child poverty where it is most deeply entrenched and improve outcomes for children and families.
Minister Fitzgerald said: “We know that early intervention improves life chances for children and families, particularly in communities with high levels of disadvantage and joblessness, and is a key factor in tackling child poverty. This is an innovative programme based upon proven interventions which is being implemented in partnership with local communities and philanthropy.”
National Children’s Detention Facility
Minister Fitzgerald welcomed the decision to allocate €31m in capital funding in 2014 to her Department to enable the National Children Detention Facility project in Oberstown to proceed. The project will deliver sufficient new detention facilities to extend the child care model of detention to all under 18 year olds ordered to be detained by the courts, with the first residential detention places to be delivered in 3rd quarter, 2014 to prioritise the transfer of responsibility for 17 year old boys from St. Patrick’s Institution. The project, which will be fully complete in 2015, also involves the replacement of existing detention buildings that are used by Oberstown Boys School. The project is currently costed at a total of €56.4 million (including VAT).
Minister Fitzgerald said “This is the culmination of a long process to design, fund and procure this project which, by increasing capacity on the Oberstown campus, will deliver on the Government’s
commitment to end the use of St. Patrick’s Institution for children detained by the courts.”
Programme Savings under the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure 2012-2014
Minister Fitzgerald said her Department will continue to implement savings in 2014 to programme areas, where these were identified in the 2011 Comprehensive Review of Expenditure (CRE). To the greatest extent possible, these are being achieved through increased operating efficiencies and value-for-money to protect frontline services.
The Minister announced that she has secured a scaling-back of reductions to youth work services in 2014 of the order of €1m compared to the reductions proposed in the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure. There will be discussion with the youth sector on the approach to next year’s allocations taking account of the reduced saving requirement.
Introduction of Free GP Care for under 5 year olds & protection of child benefits rates
Minister Fitzgerald has today welcomed the announcement that free General Practitioner care will be extended to children aged five and under.
The Minister said: “Investing in free GP Care is about securing the health of our under 5’s and improving the health of our nation in to the future.” .
“I am firmly committed to a policy of early intervention and in line with this commitment my Department is currently developing Ireland’s first ever National Early Years Strategy.”
“The implementation of free GP care for children 5 years demonstrates this Government commitment to investing in early intervention and represents a very important contribution to Government’s overall prioritisation of the youngest members of our community.”
Minister Fitzgerald further welcomed the maintenance of child benefit rates as an important contribution to supporting families.