Child services review for 2009 still not published

A HSE report which must be carried out every year to assess how child and family services are working has still not been published for 2009.

The last time the review of adequacy of child and family services report was published was in 2008, but there is no confirmed date for the 2009 report.

The 1991 Childcare Act states that “a health board shall, within 12 months... and annually thereafter, have a report prepared on the adequacy of the childcare and family support services available in its area”.

The report, which outlines services for children in care or at risk of neglect or abuse, is also supposed to highlight deficiencies in services.

Since 2008, however, the document has lost much of its value, simply laying out raw statistics with little context or information about adequacy of services.

Previous to 2008, local health managers wrote extensive submissions to the HSE on services in their area. These submissions, while not contained in the final report, served to inform it and gave a clear picture of services — and lack thereof — in each area.

They often highlighted serious breaches of child welfare and protection services, and spoke about vulnerable children “continually” being put at risk.

Last year, when the Irish Examiner made enquiries as to why there were no background submissions available for the 2008 report, the HSE stated: “The 2008 review of adequacy report was prepared without the input of local reports as in previous years.

“The report is informed by the interim dataset returns which contain a very wide range of comprehensive data in regard to children and family services. The report is also informed by a range of other data sources including the CSO, the small area health research unit, the national drug treatment reporting system, the National Office for Suicide Prevention and HIQA.

“In addition the report is informed by the information that flows from the ongoing formal and informal management processes of the service which contextualises the service level data.”

It remains to be seen whether the reformed childcare regime within the HSE will carry out the report so that it once again fulfils its statutory requirements.

Asked when the report is to be published the HSE said: “It will be published shortly, date to be confirmed.”

Dr Siobhan Barry, clinical director of St John of God Community Mental Health Service, said she expected that the Children’s Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, and the HSE national director of children and family services, Gordon Jeyes, would be keen to have the report published, as it would provide material from which they can draw up an implementation plan to enable services to reach the minimum expected standards.