NOT LONG after she was appointed as the first Cabinet- ranking Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald received a worrying insight into how neglected child and family services have been.
She could not get reliable or up-to-date information on the volume of child abuse and neglect cases being handled by social services; there were no figures on the average number of cases being handled by social workers; no one seemed to know how many children were leaving foster care each year.
“I was appalled at the lack of standardised information on those kinds of issues. I could only conclude that these services just hadn’t received the kind of priority they should have had over the past 10 years or so,” Fitzgerald says.
“It showed me that the Government was right to make this post a senior ministry and that we were right to create a new agency to deal with child and family services.”
The failings of our child protection system have been exposed increasingly over recent years.
Leaked social work files show thousands of reports of suspected abuse or neglect referred to child-protection services remain unscreened and unassessed by social workers.
The result is that vulnerable young people remain at serious risk of abuse or mistreatment. Social work staff in many parts of the State say they are being forced to ignore these cases or simply to add them to waiting lists due to heavy workloads and under- staffing.
These concerns are nothing new. What has changed, however, is the political will to change the system.
Inquiries into child abuse over recent years have exposed the shocking inadequacy of many aspects of our child protection services. And the Government’s trenchant criticism of the Catholic Church’s failings means it, too, must ensure its house is in order.
If the church has a profound duty of care to young people, then the State’s responsibility is even greater. Under childcare legislation, social services have a legal duty to protect the welfare of vulnerable young people. The State is also, in effect, the parent of more than 6,000 children in the care system.
Fitzgerald says the Government has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda which will see a new agency responsible for dealing with abuse concerns, a new legal framework to strengthen protection for children in society and a long-promised referendum on children’s rights.
There has long been a perception that child and family issues have been eclipsed at Health Service Executive level by issues relating to more politically important problem areas such as hospitals and primary care.
Fitzgerald says a new agency, to be known as the Child and Family Support Agency, will be separate from the HSE, with a dedicated budget and clearer lines of accountability.
“This will help bring about a complete change in culture. It’s an exciting change and people within the sector know that change is afoot,” she says.
“These structural changes aren’t the only answer. We also need to focus on social work practice and delivering quality services. We need to keep in mind what a child’s experiences are, what are the best outcomes, and how we can achieve that. There is serious work to be done.”
It’s ironic, she adds, that successive governments have spoken about the need to be child-centred – yet have done so little to realise that vision.
“Actually, we haven’t been child-centred at all. Look at how slow we were to put playgrounds in new property developments, for example. Or how slow we have been to get proper inter-agency co-operation on children’s issues.”
Yet, in the rush to change, some fear that this reform agenda could do more harm than good. There are fears that plans to introduce mandatory reporting of suspected abuse could overwhelm already overstretched social services.
Fitzgerald is aware of those concerns, but she says it is crucial to change our culture regarding child abuse and ensure we do everything possible to protect children’s wellbeing. Too often, she adds, we have neglected these important issues.
With ambition, however, comes great expectation. Ultimately, she will be judged on her results in office.
“You need to be impatient to get things done and you have to demand a lot of the system.
“I’m very fortunate that I’m working with a very good team, such as the secretary general of the department, Jim Breslin; the HSE’s head of child and family services Gordon Jeyes, and many more. We all want to move forward on these issues.
“At the end of the day,” the Minister adds, “the people of Ireland have a common goal in protecting children. There is a new awareness – a greater sensitivity towards these issues.”
