· Establishment represents one of the current Government's largest public service reforms
· Most ambitious and comprehensive reform of child protection services ever undertaken in Ireland
· Family Support Agency, Pre-school Inspectorate and National Education Welfare Board to be included in new Agency
Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, has today introduced the Child and Family Agency Bill 2013 during the second stage speech in Dáil Éireann.
The Minister told the Dáil that the establishment of the Agency represents a key Programme for Government commitment and on what has been an absolute priority for me as Minister.
The Minister stated: “The Bill I am introducing today represents the legislative element of one of the current Government's largest public service reforms. But more importantly it represents the most ambitious and comprehensive reform of child protection, early intervention and family support services ever undertaken in Ireland.”
The Minister commented that the reform programme and establishment of the Agency represented an essential response to findings of service dysfunction, inconsistency and fragmentation evidenced in nearly 20 major reports on child protection failings since 1980.
The Minister added: “We must emancipate our child protection and welfare services from the monolith of the health services, where for too long in the past they were lost and rudderless. We must break down the barriers between agencies and services. We must have more seamless integration of policy and service delivery, not fragmentation. Put simply, we are going to move from a position where child and family welfare was barely a priority, to a position where it will be the sole focus of a single dedicated state agency, overseen by a single dedicated government Department.”
The Bill provides that the Child and Family Agency will assume responsibility for a range of services from Establishment Day. These services include:
- Child Welfare and Protection Services, including family support services;
- Existing Family Support Agency responsibilities;
- Existing National Educational Welfare Board responsibilities;
- Pre-school Inspection Services;
- Domestic, sexual and gender based violence services; and
- Services related to the psychological welfare of children.
Cumulatively, this represents the largest and most ambitious public service reform being undertaken by this Government; involving 4,000 staff across three existing agencies and a budget of nearly €600 million.
The Minister noted that “the incorporation of pre-school inspection services will further promote a nationally consistent approach to regulation, inspection and enforcement; all of which are key elements of my Department’s ongoing Pre-School Quality Agenda.”
The Minister told the Dáil that “while improving child protection has rightly been an issue of much focus in recent times; and will be a key objective of the new Agency, prevention, early intervention and family support are equally, if not more important goals for the Agency.
The pilot phase report of the National Audit of Neglect Cases, published in recent weeks, highlighted what it referred to as the “harsh reality of neglect” The Audit finds that parental alcohol misuse was a factor in 62% of families in the overall sample; and states that “family dysfunction was often associated with chronic alcohol and drug misuse”.
The Minister stated that “much work is underway on the development of new models of case intake, assessment and referral, to include both a greater differentiation between child protection and welfare referrals and a greater focus on early intervention and community-based family support interventions.”
“Building on this work, the Bill provides for a much expanded range of services compared to that currently delivered within HSE child welfare and protection services. In particular the new agency will build on the excellent work undertaken by the Family Support Agency over the last decade; and the nationwide network of 106 Family Resource Centres which will play a central role in the new agency and it’s continuum of community supports.”
The Minister also commented on the proposed inclusion of the existing National Education Welfare Board, stating: “I firmly believe that that the inclusion of education welfare services and school completion in the new Child and Family Agency will lead to greater collaborative approach in addressing issues of school completion, family support and child welfare.”
There are 93 sections contained in 12 parts. There are also 3 Schedules.
The Bill includes a number of innovative provisions to improve accountability and performance management, including the provisions relating to the Minister’s functions in issuing a multi annual Performance Framework and an annual Performance Statement for the Agency.