New era begins in child protection

Jan 1 was the first official day of the new Child and Family Agency. The Children’s Rights Alliance welcomes the agency — the centrepiece of Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald’s legislative agenda.

Chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, Tanya Ward, said: “The new agency will completely reform the child-protection and family support landscape in Ireland. Anyone involved in child protection or welfare has known, for years, that the system is broken. Countless reports have pointed to a number of failings in a dysfunctional system; where cooperation between agencies is poor, responses to welfare concerns are too late, and frontline services are struggling to cope”.

The agency will absorb the child-protection and welfare services currently carried out by the HSE. It will include the Family Support Agency, the National Education Welfare Board, pre-school inspection and services relating to the psychological welfare of children, and to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.