ONE of the key events in social policy in 1995 was the bringing into effect last November of the core of the 1991 Child Care Act.
The Act has been hailed as the vehicle, through which the modernisation of child care services would be realised. The year ahead will test whether this will be the case.
The Act will profoundly influence the three areas of our system child protection, family support services and alternative care. In these areas, major problems face front line workers and policy makers as child protection work gets harder, becoming more complex, adversarial and legalistic.
Reports of suspected child abuse increased almost twentyfold in a decade. In the post Kilkenny incest case era, there are now more case conferences, Garda liaison meetings, legal briefings and reports to be written than ever before.
The new Act gives health boards extra powers to intervene in cases of suspected abuse but, more significantly, they also have statutory duties to deliver support services. This has created a new climate, full of opportunities but also laden with stress.
Family support services, which reduce the risk of abuse or neglect and prevent children being taken into care, have always been an ill defined and under resourced part of our social care network. Pat Kenny, of the North Western Health Board, has pointed out that "just as we have child abuse guidelines, there should also be family support guidelines.
"Family support work with its emphasis on prevention, growth and change can serve as an antidote to the often morale sapping effect of child protection work and can reduce the need for child protection services."
Ideally, every child should be looked after in its own family. Failing this, he or she should be cared for by close relatives, and if this is not an option, in high quality state care. There are about 3,000 children and adolescents in care, mostly in foster families.
Youth homelessness constitutes one of the major issues facing our social services. Many social workers are dissatisfied with health board interpretations of Section 5 of the Act, whereby homeless youngsters who are offered health board funded "accommodation" do not have to be taken into care.
This means the full range of support that goes with being in care does not have to be offered.
It is not necessary to take all homeless young people into care, but this presupposes that the accommodation offered is of a high quality and/or that extra social support is not required. The reality is that, particularly in Dublin, B&B accommodation may be all that is on offer.
The arrival of the 1991 Act has created opportunities but also increased demands on an already overstretched system. In 1993, the Kilkenny incest report showed the inadequacies of our child protection system. While it said "each individual (professional) responded to the best of his or her abilities to the presenting symptoms of Mary's abuse", its many recommendations testify to just how far we have to, travel to modernise our services.
Perhaps this is what lies behind the decision by IMPACT the union which represents health board social workers not to cooperate with aspects of the Act this year in the Eastern Health Board region due to a lack of resources. The Government has allocated an extra £10 million for child care services in the coming Budget, but there are problems at every level.
In the end it may be left to the courts to use the 1991 Act's statutory provisions to extract more money from the Exchequer.
Child care will not be far from the public gaze in 1996. The reports of child abuse inquiries at Madonna House, the death of Kelly Fitzgerald, the "West of Ireland farmer case" and allegations of abuse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, are due for publication.
Internationally, we will also come in for scrutiny. In August during our EU Presidency a major international congress on child abuse and neglect will take place in Dublin. This is being organised by a multi disciplinary group of professionals, from both parts of Ireland, under the auspices of the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect.
It will, inevitably, draw international attention to child care in Ireland whether it is youth homelessness, children begging in the streets or sexual abuse by clerics.