Group overseeing services for troubled teens unveiled

A NEW advisory board that will co-ordinate services for troubled teenagers and children was launched yesterday.

The new Children Acts Advisory Board is set to advise Children's Minister Brendan Smith on various issues, including reporting on the level of residential accommodation for children in detention schools and special care units.

The new body comes into being under the terms of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007, changing the name of the existing Special Residential Services Board (SRSB) and broadening its functions. The SRSB had specialised in co-ordinating child placements, but the deputy chief executive of the new board, Finbarr O’Leary, said the new powers exercised by the body would be able to provide “checks and balances” across a range of services.