Tusla is to collaborate with families and professionals to better address the wellbeing and needs of children.
The Child and Family Agency has committed to an approach of early, co-ordinated intervention to deliver the improvements.
The agency is to develop a revised Alternative Care Strategy to enhance the services available to children in care, to support young people to remain safely at home, and to explore and develop a range of care placements, following the release of its National Review Panel Annual Report for 2014.
The release of the report coincides with reviews into the deaths of two young people and a detailed report into the deaths of six children and young people from natural causes.
The deaths of these young people were not connected to the quality of services they received, according to Tusla director of policy and strategy Cormac Quinlan. However, he said the latest reports highlighted the “historical deficits in practice and inconsistencies in service provision”.
New national approach
He said the child and family agency had developed a new national approach entitled Meitheal which would involve collaboration with both families and professionals to address the challenges faced in providing high-quality care to young people.
Tusla is set to develop an intervention tool kit and professional development plan for social workers which will “provide consistency and enhance best practice in engaging families” and has also committed to “safeguarding the mental health and wellbeing of young people in receipt of its services”, he said.
Mr Quinlan said Tusla would continue to work with the HSE on “complex cases” involving children with disabilities and children with mental health difficulties.
He announced the introduction of a new role which would focus on the issue of suicide, with training provided on suicide prevention to staff across the agency.
Enduring challenges
Speaking following the release of the annual report, chairwoman of the National Review Panel Dr Helen Buckley said Tusla would continue to address some of the enduring challenges alongside its reform programme, including pressure on the system which “impacts on the timing and quality of assessment and intervention”.
Earlier this month Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon alluded to Tusla’s difficulty in assessing reports within the target time of 21 days, which he warned left over 2,000 children “in a vulnerable situation without the proper, timely support from the State”.
The latest statistics from the office of the Ombudsman show 1,500 children are being catered for in temporary accommodation, a situation Dr Muldoon described as a “nightmare scenario”.
