Inquiry into Residential and
Secure Accommodation for Children in Northern Ireland

The Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety is a Statutory Departmental Committee established in accordance with paragraphs 8 and 9 of Strand One of the Belfast Agreement and under Standing Order No. 45 of The Northern Ireland Assembly. The Committee has a scrutiny, policy development and consultation role with respect to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, and has a role in the initiation of legislation.

The Committee has the power to:

• consider and advise on Departmental budgets and Annual Plans in the context of the overall budget allocation;
• approve relevant secondary legislation and take the Committee Stage of relevant primary legislation;
• call for persons and papers;
• initiate inquiries and make reports;
• consider and advise on matters brought to the Committee by the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

The Committee has eleven members, including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, and a quorum of five.

The membership of the Committee since its establishment on 29 November 1999 has been as follows:

• Dr Joe Hendron (Chairman)
• Mr Tommy Gallagher (Deputy Chairman)
• Ms Pauline Armitage
• Mr Paul Berry
• Mrs Joan Carson
• Ms Carmel Hanna
• Mr John Kelly
• Mr Alan McFarland
• Ms Monica McWilliams
• Ms Sue Ramsey
• Mrs Iris Robinson
• Rev Robert Coulter (replaced Mrs Carson with effect from 11 September 2000)

All correspondence should be addressed to The Clerk of the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee, Room 419, Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Belfast, BT4 3XX. The telephone number for general enquiries is: 028 9052 1932.

The Clerk's E-mail address is: george.martin@niassembly.gov.uk

Dr Ewan McEwan

Mr Frank McKeating

Mr Billy McMillan

Ms Helen Eagleson

Ms Liz Millen

The Minister, Ms Bairbre de Brún

Mr Clive Gowdy

Dr Kevin McCoy

Mr Leslie Frew

Mr Brian Campfield

Mr John Gillespie

Miss Eileen Webster

Armagh and Dungannon Health and Social Services Trust

Association of Directors of Social Services

Association of Family Solicitors for Children

Ballymoney Borough Council

Banbridge District Council

Barnardo's

Belfast Central Mission

Belfast City Hospital Health and Social Services Trust

BMA Northern Ireland

Children's Law Centre

Craigavon Borough Council

Down Lisburn Health and Social Services Trust

Eastern Health and Social Services Board

Family Bar Association of the Bar of Northern Ireland

Firstkey, Northern Ireland

Foyle Health and Social Services Trust

Glenmona Resource Centre

Homefirst Community Trust

[Include] Youth

Mencap (Northern Ireland)

Mulrine, Sean

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)

North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust

North Eastern Education and Library Board

Northern Health and Social Services Board

Northern Health and Social Services Council

Northern Ireland Court Service

Northern Ireland Guardian Ad Litem Agency (NIGALA)

Northern Ireland Office (Criminal Justice Directorate)

Northern Ireland Women's Aid Federation

Probation Board for Northern Ireland

Registration and Inspection Unit of the Eastern Health and Social Services Board

Registration and Inspection Unit of the Northern Health and Social Services Board

Simon Community Northern Ireland

Social Services Inspectorate

South and East Belfast Trust

South Eastern Education and Library Board

Southern Health and Social Services Board

The Department of Education

The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety

The Education Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly

The Royal College of General Practitioners

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

The Royal Hospitals Trust

Threshold: Richmond Fellowship (NI) Ltd

Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust

Western Education and Library Board

Western Health and Social Services Board

Western Health and Social Services Council

Young, Godfrey

[The Committee also received seven letters specifically in relation to Brindley House, County Fermanagh, which is a private children's home.]

The written submissions listed above have not been printed. They may, however, be inspected by Members in the Assembly Library, and by the public in the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee, by prior arrangement, during normal working hours. (Tele: (028) 9052 1786).

13 September 2000

Child Care NI's Residential Group supports the blue print of Children Matter. It is imperative that action regarding the implementation of the strategy happens sooner rather than later.

We are concerned that there has been a further retraction in the number of voluntary sector providers, with the decision to close by St Joseph's Adolescent Centre, Middletown.

Child Care NI members expressed the following concerns, which for expediency I have written as bullet-points:

• A growing sense of frustration at our inability to meaningfully engage in the process of planning strategically to implement Children Matter.
• An increasing anxiety about the future of the voluntary sector in providing residential childcare services.
• The lack of a financial strategy to support the implementation programme.
• Our sector being excluded from providing secure accommodation in Northern Ireland whilst Voluntary organisations in Britain can provide these services.
• The lack of a level playing field with other sectors regarding being able to submit proposals to provide services.
• The impact on staff from the continuing lack of progress re: Children Matter and the changes in the Criminal Justice (Children) Order, as they try to manage the serious problems in the system at the moment.
• The need for urgent focused action to ensure the safety and well being of the children and young people in residential care. Our recent report "Views from the Ground", highlighted the difficulties staff are experiencing ensuring the young people in their care are safe.
• Emphasis should be on what is needed regionally; to date there has been too much evidence at Trust level of a self-sufficiency approach being the key to solving the problems.
• There is a need to revisit the Regulations, in many instances we are prevented from acting as the "good parent".
• Where is the "Quality Protects" agenda at in NI?
• There is a need for greater openness, transparency and accountability re funding. Our members have an increasing sense of being passed back and forward between Trusts, Boards and the DHSS and PS during any decision making process.

At a recent conference, organised by Child Care NI in partnership with the Health and Social Services Boards, which focused on residential care, staff on the ground raised the following issues:

• Lack of differentiation and a need for small specialist facilities.
• Lack of placement choice.
• Inability of units to fulfil their "Statement of Purpose".
• Problems recruiting and retaining staff, there is a need for a career structure, investment in training, and revision of terms and conditions of service.
• There is a need for a co-ordinated strategic approach to residential care provision in NI.
• There is a need for a Centre for Residential Care which could provide training, information, networking opportunities and a central focus for this 'Cinderella service', residential care staff feel disempowered and undervalued as they continue to do some excellent work with young people under the most difficult of circumstances.

Child Care NI's Residential Group wants to play a pro-active role in the development of a comprehensive residential childcare service throughout NI. We want to develop services that both meet the changing needs of children and young people, and the changing demands of the purchasers of services.

We are particularly interested in innovative projects that meet local needs and in the development of partnerships in service delivery, in particular the following:-

• Community based respite care schemes.
• Services to meet the increasing demands of the Criminal Justice Order.
• Provision of Specialist Units to meet particular needs e.g.
• Services for under 10s, Preparation for Foster Care, Shared care with families and foster carers.
• Projects working with children excluded from school.
• New models of Generalist provision.
• Leaving Care and After care services.
• Outreach work.

In conclusion Child Care NI welcomes the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee inquiry and appreciates the opportunity to contribute to the process. We are committed to continuing to work to ensure better outcomes for children and young people looked after.

I have attached a copy of our recent report for your information.

MARY CUNNINGHAM
Director, Child Care NI

Dr Hendron (Chairperson)
Mr Gallagher (Deputy Chairperson)
Ms Armitage
Mr Berry
Ms Hanna
Mr J Kelly
Mr McFarland
Prof M McWilliams
Ms Ramsey

Mr B McMillan ) Child Care
Mr F McKeating ) Northern Ireland

103.

The Chairperson: You are both very welcome. Do you both work under the umbrella of childcare?

104.

Mr McMillan: Yes.

105.

The Chairperson: We thank you for the documentation you have sent us, the one headed 'Child Care' and the second on the Glenmona Resource Centre. You can assume that we have all read the first document. I would appreciate it if you would make your presentation.

106.

Mr McKeating: Thank you. We are delighted to have been invited to address the Committee, and we welcome the opportunity to raise some of the issues and solutions that can help address some of the difficulties being experienced in residential care.

107.

We are here today to represent Child Care Northern Ireland, which is an umbrella body that represents a lot of the voluntary providers of residential care in Northern Ireland. It exists to use its collective expertise to try to address and influence some of the issues involved in childcare and to try to have some input into strategic developments in residential care.

108.

Child Care Northern Ireland sees a number of issues which need to be addressed on the predicament in which we find ourselves today. We see those as being in three specific areas, strategic areas and operational and resources issues. On the whole, Child Care Northern Ireland agrees that 'Children Matter' provides the blue print for the way forward. It addresses a lot of the major issues in relation to providing for the needs of children in residential care. If it were fully implemented it would be a major step in improving the standard of care and the outcomes for children who have to live in residential care. However, there is an overwhelming sense of feeling among our members that damage is being done to children, that children are not receiving the appropriate levels of care as per their assessed needs, because of the lack of differentiated and specialised accommodation in Northern Ireland. Each and every one of our constituent groups would be able to produce copious examples of inappropriately placed children who do not have their assessed needs met. Indeed, they may also be damaging the other children with whom they are placed.

109.

It is important to make that point and to stress it. This is a major issue in residential childcare in Northern Ireland today. As a consequence of this, it is essential that there be a concerted and co-ordinated effort to increase the diversity of provision. We need different types of provision: specialised provision; localised provision; facilities that cater especially for young people with very specific problems, rather than what we have at the moment, which is "Where is there a bed to place the child?" rather than "What does the child need?" That is bad practice.

110.

It is safe to say, and it is a strong statement, that the state and the providers of residential care are corporate parents for children. One would assume that if the state is going to look after a child, at the very least it should provide him with a standard of accommodation, experience and upbringing that is better than he had where he came from, given that he may have come from a background with major difficulties. In many instances we do not do that for some of the children in our care. We are exposing them to risk, and we are exposing them to experiences and circumstances that are not conducive to a good upbringing.

111.

We need to look at some of those issues. We need additional funds to meet capital costs of building and running new facilities, and they are expensive facilities to run. This has major implications.

112.

Yet even if we had those funds and resources, they would not matter in the absence of an inclusive, strategic plan and a body with the authority and resources to drive that strategy forward from the planning stage to the implementation stage- indeed, a body that could say where the facilities will go and how they will be utilised.

113.

At present, there appears to be, from our viewpoint, some sectional and competing interests among the different trusts and boards. Rather than having a co-ordinated approach for all of Northern Ireland which looks at the different types of facilities that are required, there is evidence that, occasionally, individual trusts or boards have tended to put their needs to the forefront instead of considering the overall picture.

114.

We contest that there is a strategic vacuum and that the project team set up by the Department to look at how to implement 'Children Matter' towards the end of 1999 has failed to deliver. We have not, as yet, had the strategic guidance, the strategic policy, or the strategic direction that we anticipated. We thought that because of the urgency of the difficulties experienced, it would have been forthcoming much sooner than it has been.

115.

Some individual trusts, for example, North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust, Foyle and Newry and Mourne, have accessed funding to build new units or refurbish old units, but again those facilities have just tended to replace losses to the residential sector over the last 10 or 15 years. They are not providing additional resources; they are basically dealing with some of the loss that the sector has had.

116.

As a voluntary sector organisation, we had some involvement in looking at how 'Children Matter' could be implemented. We could have suggested that perhaps we need five differentiated units or two specialised units. We have not had a direct input into deciding who will provide those services and where they should be placed. We feel vulnerable in that relationship with the statutory bodies. Indeed, at this stage, we have not received any concrete indications or satisfactory assurances about where, or indeed if, the existing voluntary providers fit into the plans. Occasionally, there have been verbal comments to the effect that there is a future for the voluntary sector in the provision of residential care. My organisation has a contract until 2002, but we are not certain that that will continue beyond then.

117.

Such a scenario does not engender confidence in the voluntary sector, and it renders it very difficult for us to plan for the future with any degree of confidence. We have recently seen a further contraction of the sector with the closure of St Joseph's, Middletown, in June 2000. That resulted in the loss of 24 places with specialised provision for young people with very challenging behaviour. St Joseph's provided residential care for children for 119 years. In addition to the loss of the beds, which weighed heavily on an already overburdened sector, it is important to note that 26 out of the 30 staff employed in St Joseph's did not re-enter residential social work. They went to fieldwork, took early retirement, or left the social-work sector altogether.

118.

If we have to increase facilities, but cannot employ enough qualified and experienced staff in our current children's homes, we shall have major difficulties in coping with the increase. It is a major issue.

119.

I have already referred to contractual arrangements with which all our members have experienced difficulties. We have evidence that, approaching the end of a financial year, one of our members was advised that £60,000 was to be withdrawn from its revenue by the trust, which itself had particular difficulties with its budgets. We cannot run services like that. We must have dedicated resources and finance to enable us to be part of this process. There must be a sense of security and confidence in our services. We must know that we are part of the desired process, for we have something very valuable to offer.

120.

I shall move on to the difficulties with secure accommodation. We recognise that a significant but small number of children need to be placed in secure accommodation to afford them the protection they need. We fully support a range of services to pre-empt the need for children to enter that type of facility, but for some it is the best option at a particular time in their lives. The provision of secure accommodation has been restricted to the statutory sector in Northern Ireland, excluding both the voluntary and private sectors. Such a prohibition does not apply in England and Wales, and we are at a loss to understand why we have been excluded.

121.

In June 1999, when there were major concerns about the number of children who should be in secure accommodation but were not so accommodated, my organisation made an offer to the Department to provide a secure facility on our site. Although we had a staff and management team with previous experience of working in secure accommodation, the Department would not remove the ban on the voluntary sector's providing that facility. One year later, the additional provision commissioned for the unit at Lakewood, is still not available because it has not been possible to find appropriately qualified and experienced staff. That was a major failure by the Department, and our organisation feels that the prohibition, which is prejudiced and discriminatory against the voluntary sector, should be lifted.

122.

I already mentioned the major operational issues of recruiting and retaining staff, and I do not wish to dwell too long on the theme. We must try to devise some strategy to enhance residential social work and make the working environment more attractive.

123.

There are stresses and pressures in the system. We are also coping with an influx of children from the juvenile justice system. Previously, there were 150-200 people in the juvenile justice system, but the figure has reduced to 50. Many of those children end up in our children's homes, and we are not equipped to deal with the particular problems with which they present us. Violence and aggression are significant problems, and this is due to our not being able to offer children appropriate places. We tend simply to bring a range of children with wide and varying needs together, something conducive neither to good practice nor to a good upbringing.

124.

We also find that a large number of children are being criminalised by the system. Various reports of inquiries held in England and Wales, and for example, the Quality Protects: Transforming Children's Services initiative, have shown that we should try to decrease the connection between children in care and law and order.

125.

In fact, we are increasing it. The sanctions and controls available in the children's home regulations are not conducive to dealing appropriately with some of the behaviour we experience.

126.

There are some major anomalies. In relation to resources, any funding which has been, or is to be, allocated should be ring-fenced. There is quite strong evidence that previous allocations of money to the residential childcare sector have gone to other acute services. If we are ever to address this problem, it is essential that we ensure that the money goes where it is intended.

127.

We should like to try to end our presentation on a positive note, for I am sure that a wide range of bodies will have presented pictures similar to ours. We can do certain things immediately which may help address some of the difficulties experienced by the voluntary sector in particular and perhaps by residential childcare in general. It is essential that there be clear strategic vision and planning for the future, including the voluntary sector, with one body taking responsibility for driving the process forward. The ring-fencing of funds would bring some degree of certainty and security to the voluntary, statutory and private sectors. Contractual arrangements between trusts or boards and the voluntary sector must be addressed soon. We must have more workable and businesslike contracts. It is not good to expect an organisation to work on a year-to-year basis. Neither is it good for our staff, whom we employ on temporary contracts, for they leave the service to go elsewhere.

128.

Initiatives from the voluntary sector, such as the one I mentioned, where we offered to provide interim secure accommodation to deal with a crisis, should be given equal weight to those coming from the statutory sector. The recruitment and retention of staff must be urgently addressed. We must look at the professional training courses, which tend to have a bias towards field social work. They must instead look specifically at the skills and attributes required for residential social work and make it attractive so that it appears a worthwhile move for someone considering such a career.

129.

Were some of the above suggestions acted on, there would be little or no requirement for additional funding. They could be dealt with within existing resources. If implemented, they would go some way towards stabilising a beleaguered voluntary residential sector. Additionally, they would facilitate a more inclusive, co-ordinated and, one hopes, innovative approach to providing for the identified and assessed needs of all the children who need to be looked after. The crux of the matter is what the children should have, and we are obliged to do our best to ensure that they have that.

130.

The Chairperson: We took up the point you made about ring-fencing with the Eastern Board and the Minister. You are totally correct. It is fact that money is not ring-fenced as such. The word they use is "earmarked". The Eastern Health and Social Services Board has been up-front about the fact that it has used money intended for implementing the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 to pay off debts related to other matters. It is obviously a very important point indeed. Thank you very much indeed, Mr McKeating.

131.

Mr McFarland: How many voluntary homes are there in Northern Ireland?

132.

Mr McKeating: At present, Glenmona Resource Centre provides four eight-bed units with one three- bedroom pre-independence flat. I believe that the Belfast Central Mission provides three eight-bed units and a range of after-care and independence facilities. Barnardos moved out of the provision for adolescents some years ago but it is now involved in projects with a number of children, and it is hoping to re-enter with a new project.

133.

Mr McMillan: Barnardos is currently developing a provision for the Eastern Board. It will be a small residential unit for under-12s and integrated with a fostering provision. As it is for young children, the unit will be small. It will accommodate five children on the residential side and 15 on the fostering side.

134.

Mr McFarland: What extra training is required to move someone from the field sector to residential, and from residential to secure?

135.

Mr McKeating: The core skills are the same. There are certain skills and attributes required to practice social work and to work with the client. However, I feel that the professional training courses are not preparing people for the reality of life in residential care. A lot of residential care is about basic primary care for children - they need a home first and foremost. The children then need to have the therapeutic input to help them address some of their problems.

136.

However, there are issues. A particular type of skill is required when you are working with sexual abusers. You need to work with children and perpetrators on a one-to-one and daily basis. I am not being derogatory towards my colleagues in the field, but field social work tends to be on an appointment basis where you go out to visit someone in a family. It is not the same as the living situation, which is the major area of consideration for residential social workers. For them it is a living situation first and foremost.

137.

The unsociable hours are also a major difficulty for staff, and training needs to address that. There is scant reference to it on the training courses but people should realise that we have to cover the units 24 hours a day 365 days a year. That requires us sometimes to ask staff to come on duty at 2.00 and leave at 2.00 the following day. This has a major impact on their family and social life.

138.

We have discovered that a number of the staff who apply for residential social work posts may be fresh from a course and are using the residential unit as a stepping- stone to field social work.

139.

Mr McFarland: What are the required skills for a social worker moving from residential to secure units?

140.

Mr McKeating: In the secure environment there is a strong emphasis on regulations and procedures to ensure a child's safety. There is a much more functional element to working in the secure accommodation unit. There is also a need for very intensive and comprehensive skills in relation to one-to-one work. It tends to be more intensive and, in some ways, more stressful as you are spending long periods of time in a confined space with the young people.

141.

If working in a secure accommodation unit a social worker is not required to utilise, to the same degree, community resources or be involved in the process of normalisation - trying not to exclude a child from the community but keeping him as part of the community. Secure accommodation by its very nature removes a child from his community.

142.

Mr McFarland: Earlier we talked about the difference between secure accommodation for children who are a danger to themselves and others because of their psychological make-up and those who are in secure accommodation because they are too young to go to adult jails. When you were volunteering for secure accommodation which one of these were you volunteering for? I understand that it is not possible to have both categories of children in the same home. If we are building secure accommodation we are looking at two different scenarios. What are the differences between looking after these two groups?

143.

Mr McKeating: It is hard to give a definitive view on this, but I can refer to the experiences that I have had throughout my career.

144.

We are offering to provide a short-term care measure for young people with specific behaviour problems, who are at serious risk. It is not for those children who come through the courts after crime. From an anecdotal point of view, my experience is that a significant proportion of children in the criminal justice system may have families that they can remain with. There is some semblance of a family life around them. A lot of young people become involved in criminal activities as a result of peer and environmental influences. There is potential for dealing with these situations in a constructive way and moving beyond these problems. Indeed, some evidence suggests that there is an offending curve which decreases as the young person gets older.

145.

Those children and young people in the care system who are housed in secure accommodation are generally experiencing major psychological or welfare-orientated problems. In many of these cases they do not have a stable family background, or anything that could be regarded as a stable background. They depend upon the public sector to be their carer, to be their parent, and they need a different type of input. This type of care is more therapeutic, although I am not suggesting that those children in the criminal justice system do not need therapy as well. In these cases the focus tends to be on offending behaviour, on victim awareness and on trying to change specific types of behaviour.

146.

A worrying thing, which the Committee should be aware of, is that increasingly there is a crossover between the two. More and more children from the care system are engaging in criminal activity, or are becoming criminalised, as I mentioned earlier. We have to take some note of that. If a child assaults a member of staff, we have to advise the police about the incident. That child may be assaulting the member of staff because he/she reminds him of someone who abused him, or because he is dealing with emotions following a review or court appearance earlier on that day. From the sanctions available to us, we have to bring in the police, which criminalises children. It is likely that a significant proportion of young people who are on remand or are in juvenile justice facilities have come from the care system. Again, that is an indictment of the system.

147.

Mr McMillan: With reference to secure accommodation you have to remember that, on the care side, these facilities are primarily for children who are at risk to themselves. It is not the end of any process. The legislation states that no child or young person should be in secure accommodation for one minute longer than necessary. As soon as he moves in, it is the responsibility of the statutory authorities to get him out again. It is not a long-term care option. It is clearly to protect children.

148.

Recently Barnardos was approached about a young girl who was being abused through prostitution. There were no secure accommodation places available, and facilities at Barnardos in England were being considered. There was a suggestion that the girl would be sent to a specialist facility in Scotland. That is the reality of the situation. If somebody needs secure accommodation, he needs it immediately - waiting lists are no use. That young woman continues to have major problems. She has been abused and she has significant health problems.

149.

Mr Berry: Thank you for your presentation. I note with interest, Mr McKeating, that you mentioned in your report St Joseph's adolescent centre in Middletown. I have visited that centre and would comment the staff. Sadly, it has been closed down. Do you feel that something could have been done to save that home? What practical steps could be taken to reverse the contraction of the voluntary, residential care sector?

150.

Mr McKeating: I do not know the exact details behind the closure. However, I do know that the religious order that ran the facility took a collective decision. It thought that it would have major problems, in the future, as an organisation. First of all there is the issue of campus sites. These have three or four units on one site and have been asked to relocate. One unit costs in the region of £700,000 to relocate. That raises major capital issues. I cannot comment on the specifics of why the order took that decision, but I do feel that more could have been done to encourage and facilitate its continuing involvement in the residential sector.

151.

At my facility, which is a campus site, we have been asked to relocate as part of 'Children Matter'. However, we have not yet had a date for relocation or any indication of where the funding is going to come from. We are getting mixed messages regarding the provision of facilities on that site.

152.

Sir William Utting was looking at the safeguards for children in care in England and Wales, and he felt that there needed to be a national strategy to ensure that the proper resources and facilities were available. He also suggested that someone - dare I use the word "an overlord" - should be there to push this process forward, and he was quite firm on that. I share his view. We do need someone to take the bull by the horns, and say "We need 10 or 12 children's homes; we need them within the next three to four years; we are going to find the money; we are going to place them in specific areas; and we are going to involve various agencies in doing this." As a voluntary body, we have also considered that possibility. Our board of management is prepared to consider raising capital to facilitate the building of new children's homes.

153.

From a business point of view we cannot invest £700,000 per unit in a two-year contract - we just cannot do it. No business will consider such an option. A simple measure would be for us to be given assurances based upon quality. We always stand on quality. All voluntary providers do. If the Department or the boards said to us that we had a 10-year contract or a 15-year contract, or that they envisaged us being here for the next 20 years, that might enable us to take some risks and try to make progress.

154.

Mr McMillan: Quality issues are central to this. Many of the voluntary agencies pulled out of the provision, because we could not provide the quality of service that we wanted to provide because of the contracting and funding arrangements that we have.

155.

England has the Quality Protects: Transforming Children's Services Initiative, for which the Government has set objectives. They are driving the provision of childcare at the minute. We have approached senior civil servants and repeatedly asked them for dates for the implementation of the Quality Protects Initiative in Northern Ireland. We have received no date. We have asked if it will be accompanied by sums of money. As much as £365 million was put into the Quality Protects Initiative in England. We have been told that they do not know whether there is any money. The quality issue is a real issue. The voluntary sector is keen and willing to provide quality services. However, we cannot assure the quality unless we have proper contractual and funding arrangements.

156.

The Chairperson: Secure accommodation in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of statutory organisations. In Great Britain voluntary organisations are also involved. What is the restriction there?

157.

Mr McKeating: I am absolutely at a loss, as is Child Care Northern Ireland, about why we have been excluded. Under the old system - the training school system - there was a secure facility on the site which was there for some five or six years. An expertise had been built up there on the provision of secure accommodation. A number of staff who worked in that environment continued to work for the Glenmona Resource Centre - we took some of those staff from the old training school system.

158.

The Chairperson: It is not a legal requirement then?

159.

Ms Ramsey: It is part of the legislation.

160.

Mr McKeating: I read here from the children's home regulations,

"There is provision for powers for the Department of Health and Social Services to make regulations prohibiting the use of accommodation in voluntary and privately run children's homes for the purpose of restricting the liberty of children. These powers have been exercised."

Dr Hendron (Chairperson)
Mr Gallagher (Deputy Chairperson)
Ms Armitage
Mr Berry
Ms Hanna
Mr J Kelly
Mr McFarland
Ms M McWilliams
Ms Ramsey

Ms H Eagleson ) British Association of
) Social Workers

Ms L Millen ) (Northern Ireland Branch)

188.

The Chairperson: You are very welcome to the Committee session today, and I thank Helen Eagleson and Liz Millen for the documentation that they sent to us.

189.

Ms Eagleson: I am a senior social worker and chairperson of the Voices in Practice Group (Family and Child Care), and I am a member of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) (NI).

190.

Ms Millen: I am a senior social worker in the training unit of the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust. The vast majority of my experience has been in family and childcare. I am also a member of BASW (NI), a member of the executive committee, and I am on the Voices in Practice Group.

191.

Ms Eagleson: BASW (NI) welcomes the opportunity to respond to this inquiry into residential and secure accommodation for children in Northern Ireland. It is the largest association for professionals representing social work and social workers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The association has approximately 400 members in Northern Ireland.

192.

You have all received a copy of the response paper, and I intend to spend the next 15 minutes providing a summary which will include a brief background and context, some of the key issues contained in the paper and an outline of the conclusions and recommendations.

193.

The underlying principle of this paper is summed up by the Chilean poet, Gabrielle Mistral

"Many things can wait. Children cannot, right now their hip bones are being formed, their blood is being made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say tomorrow. Their name is today".

Children account for one third of the population of Northern Ireland. Thirty-seven per cent of children in Northern Ireland are affected by poverty, and up to 30% are affected by mental health problems. In 1998, more than 900 sex offences against children in Northern Ireland were reported to the police. Three and a half percent of children in Northern Ireland live with a disability.

194.

Before identifying some of the key issues for residential care in Northern Ireland I want to place it in some context. It is important to note that residential care does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of a system currently in place that provides a broad range of services for children and their families. The pattern of residential care has changed over the last decade with the voluntary homes sector declining considerably, leaving the statutory sector as the main provider.

195.

While many of the existing homes have reduced their occupancy levels they remain large buildings, institutional in scale and in image. The situation I describe reflects the emphasis in policy during the last decade, which has been to lower the number of children in residential care. However, in policy terms, the reduction has been based on the concept of preventative and diversionary programmes to support a smaller and more focussed sector.

196.

Traditionally, residential care has been viewed as a last resort and the opposite of the preventative services. This viewpoint does not accurately reflect the value and importance of residential care. Also, it does not reflect the fact that it may be the preferred option for a number of children. In order to illustrate the role and nature of residential care, I have used the image of the hanging mobile that can be seen in figure 1 in our document 'British Association of Social Workers (Northern Ireland), Response to: Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee Inquiry into Residential and Secure Accomodation for Children in Northern Ireland.' The whole system hangs on the hook of children support services. Each part, which may be of different shape, is interconnected. Any change or movement in one part of the system will inevitably impact on all of the others. Like a mobile, the system is not static. The interrelationships can be complex. Achieving the right type of balance requires the ability to understand the nature of each part, as well as the system as a whole.

197.

Following on from that, the planning and delivery of children's services, with particular reference to residential care, must take account of the level and nature of unmet need; trends over time; training for residential workers; recruitment and retention of foster carers; the need to provide child-centred services; the fact that residential care is the preferred option for some children, and good care planning is at the core of social work with children and their families.

198.

The looking after children system, also known as the LAC system, was created to take account of several of these issues. However, due to the inconsistant application of the system across trusts the full benefits of the system and its associated materials have yet to be achieved.

199.

In our paper, I have divided the key issues - for the purposes of this presentation - into four main areas: legislation; children in care; children's homes and staff issues.

200.

In respect of legislation, part IV of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 has resulted in new demands including, for example, respite care for children with a disability and family support services. The Order also requires trusts to demonstrate a needs-led approach as well as to promote choice.

201.

The implementation of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 means that trusts must now give consideration to the residential needs of children not previously in the LAC system. Articles 3, 5, 6, and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and articles 1 and 2 of the first protocol to the convention, all of which are outlined in our paper, have implications for the residential childcare service.

202.

In relation to children in care, current trends do not suggest a significant drop in the figure of approximately 12% from a total in 1998 of 2,345 children who were looked after. There is an increasing throughput of children, both in residential and foster care. Rising thresholds for admission means the residential care population tends to reflect those with much more complex needs. Increasing numbers of children are generally being expelled and excluded from mainstream education, and that is resulting in a very detrimental knock-on effect for those in residential care.

203.

There is a general range of purpose-built children's homes, many of which, as I have previously said, are institutional in size. Few homes have a clear statement of purpose, and this is a Children Order requirement. Staff and children in the homes are suffering as a result of far too great a mix of children of varying needs and behavioural difficulties. Lack of specialised provision means that children with a disability and those with severe psychiatric or psychological difficulties are being inappropriately placed in hospitals and other adult facilities. The continued retraction has resulted in increased and inappropriate demands being placed on secure accommodation places.

204.

Staff comments confirm the existence of these difficulties that I have outlined. Morale is at a low ebb. In spite of the comparatively high numbers of qualified staff in residential care in Northern Ireland, in comparison with other countries, there is a general sense amongst staff of being over-burdened and under-valued. There is a high number of "as and when required" staff in this sector who are frequently used to supplement staff rotas. This has an impact on the care delivered to the children in the homes. Having said all this, I acknowledge the good practice that currently exists in residential care throughout Northern Ireland. However, this is happening against a worrying backdrop where the current capacity of residential stock is unable to meet the demand for places or provide a choice of placement.

205.

It is with this in mind that the following recommendations are made: finance for children's services should be ring-fenced to avoid the negative impact of shortfalls in other sectors of the health and social services; an ombudsman for children should be appointed, to ensure a fair, consistent and equitable approach in all strategic and policy decisions relating to children. These issues currently range across all the Ministerial Departments that have recently been established. Boards and trusts should review their existing capital stock to assess which property should be commissioned or brought up to standard, so that they can meet the requirements outlined in parts 4 and 5 of the Children Order.

206.

Consideration should be given to adopting the model that I will now outline, which is an adaptation of a model contained in 'Children Matter', published in 1998. The proposed model suggests specialised regional provision providing secure accommodation which is centrally located. Three types of sub-regional specialist provision are suggested. First, homes for children with a complex disability providing respite care. Secondly, units for children with psychiatric and psychological needs and, thirdly, units for children who present a significant risk to other children.

207.

Broadly based differentiated local provision should provide short-stay units managing emergency admissions and assessments with the purpose of returning children to their main carers. Secondly, there should be homes which support the wider welfare system, whose purpose is to provide time-out for children after placement breakdown. Thirdly, homes for children for whom fostering is simply not an option, or for those young people who have chosen residential care and who, after a comprehensive assessment of their needs, require this type of care. Each home or unit should set occupancy levels according to its nature and purpose, but the preferred range is likely to be four up to a maximum of eight places. For this model to be effective it may require each board or trust to develop its residential services through joint commissioning and to make links, most definitely, with the voluntary and private sectors. Care should be taken when considering any change to the service, as I hope I have demonstrated that residential care does not operate in a vacuum. To finish this presentation in the spirit with which I began I would like to state that children are the citizens of the future and no better investment can be made than in them.

208.

Ms Millen: I would wish to be associated with everything that Ms Eagleson has said, but I have nothing further to add.

209.

The Chairperson: If you had to restrict yourself to making three main recommendations to maximise an improved service to children in residential care, what would they be? You have already made four recommendations in your document. You are correct in saying that finance for children's services should be ring- fenced, rather than earmarked, and our Committee has taken that up with the Minister. Your second point, that an ombudsman for children should be appointed, is also logical. The third recommendation is that the boards and trusts should review all their existing capital stock and assess what property could be commissioned or brought up to standard to meet the requirements outlined in parts four and five. You then give your recommended model.

210.

Mr McFarland: I have two points, and the first concerns your statistic that up to 30% of our young children are affected by mental health problems. That is quite a statement. Is it supported by detailed facts and figures on those problems?

211.

Ms Eagleson: Those statistics come from the Putting Children First campaign.

212.

Mr McFarland: Do we know if they are correct? It is amazing to think that one in every three children on the streets of Northern Ireland has a mental health problem. It is a sweeping statement, and I am not sure that it is accurate. I have three children so, in theory, one of them has mental health problems.

213.

Ms Eagleson: It is difficult to define a mental health problem. The document does not refer to young people with chronic problems but to those who, on occasion, require the services of mental health professionals.

214.

Mr McFarland: We are trying to build a case here, and we should be building it on extremely solid foundations. The moment it is discovered that some of the rationale behind the argument is flawed, a whole chunk of the case collapses.

215.

Let us talk now about the model, which is my main interest. One of the problems in the National Health Service is money. You suggest a secure, centrally located unit for Northern Ireland. The document also says there was a fairly small number of secure children's units in 1998.

216.

Ms Eagleson: Thirty-five from 1997 to 1998.

217.

Mr McFarland: So this unit has 35 places?

218.

Ms Millen: No, it has eight places for Northern Ireland.

219.

Mr McFarland: So there are eight places in this establishment, which is continuously crewed by a fully trained staff. On a sub-regional level, how many would that mean? Are we talking about one per board?

220.

Ms Eagleson: Yes.

221.

Mr McFarland: So we are looking at four times the number of facilities for each board area to be accommodated. If there are homes for children with complex disabilities needing respite care, separate units for children with psychiatric or psychological needs and separate units again for children who present significant risks to other children, we will have at least another 12 homes with trained staff constantly on duty.

222.

In addition, at a local level, you are looking for short-stay units to provide a wider welfare system and homes for children for whom fostering is not an option, and presumably these too will require facilities that are continuously staffed.

223.

Your suggestions are ideal, but I have concerns about them. Is it realistic in the health field to ask for something with knobs on, something which is all-singing and all-dancing? Realistically, it is unlikely that you will get it, as you will know from your everyday dealings. You are trying to persuade the Committee to lobby the Minister and the Assembly to produce money for the model, so that model should be something that is achievable. It strikes me that rather than having 20 or 30 all singing, all dancing homes all staffed, we should have an achievable model.

224.

Ms Eagleson: I have to return to the fact that we require specialised services. We cannot have children damaging one another and costing health and social services a lot more money as they go through their lives and become adults. Then the cycle would continue.

225.

In our paper, I state that for this model to work there has to be joint commissioning and work partnerships formed between statutory and voluntary agencies. In relation to sub-regional specialist provision, we are not advocating one per board, and as far as I am aware the whole structure of the boards and trusts is being reviewed. The population of Northern Ireland will not sustain the current structure. The proposed model is what is required. How that is achieved and all of the other changes that are required in Northern Ireland will have to be discussed.

226.

The Chairperson: With reorganisation of the whole system are you saying that this will be an ideal model?

227.

Ms Eagleson: There is going to be restructuring, and that model is proposed in that light and with the ideal of joint commission.

228.

Ms Millen: You mentioned times four boards or times 11 trusts. We are not proposing one of these per trust or per board. We are talking about the provision required for Northern Ireland overall. There are eight places for secure accommodation in Northern Ireland, and that is a regional facility. In some of these specialist facilities there are relatively small numbers of children, but those children require specialist provision, and if they do not get it, they would cost a great deal more in terms of damage as they go through their lives. We are not talking about 12 or 14 new units overall; we are talking about one of each for Northern Ireland as a maximum.

229.

Mr McFarland: I understand the importance of not mixing them, but it would be helpful to lay people, like myself, if the detailed homework by the experts as to where and what they should be were to be made up into a template that has been thought out and logically argued rather than simply thrown up as idealistic solutions.

230.

Ms Eagleson: May I say that this is not an idealistic solution, this is proposed in light of forthcoming change in Northern Ireland. You are not going to be working with four boards and 11 health and social services trusts; 1,500,000 of a population cannot sustain that.

231.

Mr McFarland: But you do not know?

232.

Ms Eagleson: I know there is going to have to be change.

233.

The Chairperson: There have to be major changes, and I certainly welcome your comments.

234.

Ms Ramsey: The North and West Trust has a proposal for seven units in that one trust board. I think they should get specialist units rather than have kids sharing with those with whom they should not be sharing. I do not think it is an idealistic approach.

235.

Mr J Kelly: I was taken with the notion of an ombudsman. Just to clarify - we have had other submissions relating to the appointment of a commissioner for children, so I presume that you are talking about the same thing. What major benefits would you see, and how would this individual operate in relation to the Departments, the boards and the trusts? Would you see him as an enforcer, rather than making recommendations? Secondly, what short-term practical measures could be taken to make an immediate positive impact on the provisions of residential care services?

236.

Ms Eagleson: One of the benefits is being able to take an objective view of children's services. The person would need to have powers and not be just a figurehead. Currently there are issues that impact on children across all the ministerial Departments -so it is necessary. It does not look as though a Minister for Children is going to be appointed so, at the very least, an ombudsman needs to be appointed to childproof policies and legislation. For example, an anomaly exists in that the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 defines a child as being under the age of 18, whereas the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 defines a child as being under the age of 17. That sort of anomaly should not exist if we are to be seen as having a fair and equitable approach to children and their needs.

237.

Mr J Kelly: Would the addition of a junior Minister give official support?

238.

Ms Eagleson: Yes, it would, very much so. I was being very careful in this paper not to be too idealistic or to put down a wish-list.

239.

The Chairperson: You would like a Minister, if not an ombudsman.

240.

Ms Ramsey: Thank you for your presentation. I have only a couple of questions. The proposed model mentions local provision. You state that

"For the model to be effective, it may require each board/trust to develop its residential services through joint commissioning and to make links with the voluntary and private sectors."

The Committee received a submission from Glenmona Resource Centre, and I was reading it last night. It struck me that there is a shortage of secure beds - I had not been aware of that. Glenmona offered to help out in a time of crisis, but the Department decided that it would not remove the legislative prohibition that prevents Glenmona from taking people into secure accommodation.

241.

Ms Millen: That is correct. It is run as a voluntary children's home. The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 specifically excludes voluntary homes from operating as secure units. Such provision must be in a statutory unit, and the only statutory unit that operates as a secure unit in Northern Ireland is the Shamrock Unit at Lakewood in Bangor.

242.

Ms Ramsey: The fact struck me last night; I was not previously aware of it.

243.

Ms Eagleson: That does not stop Glenmona from taking on more specialist facilities, but they cannot be secure accommodation.

244.

Ms Ramsey: I wrote to the Minister with a number of questions and received answers, but I am somewhat concerned. On the question of kids waiting to be fostered, the Department tells me that there are 271 children still waiting to be fostered, there are 87 still waiting for residential care beds, and there are 15 currently waiting for secure accommodation. My concern is about where these kids are now. Are they in danger with families where they should not be, or are they being brought into hotels?

245.

Ms Eagleson: I have included quotations from staff in my paper. One of the concerns is that when the criteria for secure accommodation places are met, places are unavailable, and time elapses. That means that the staff have to hold on to those young people and perhaps provide cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ensure that the young persons are secure. Unfortunately, children's homes are not secure units, and, therefore, this is putting an extra burden on staff. It is also an extra risk to the other children. For children awaiting secure accommodation, secured accommodation orders are granted in court because the criteria have been met. Those children are actually being returned to the children's home that they had left.

246.

Ms Millen: There are also situations where secure accommodation criteria would probably be met, but where children are being left in the community, and the trusts are not even proceeding to court, knowing that there are, say, 15 places on the waiting list. Leaving such children in the community is running a very high risk of dangerous behaviour - solvent abusing or any high-risk behaviour one cares to name. Young children are involved. It needs departmental permission to apply for an order for a child under 13. As a practitioner, I have had to ask the Department to approve an order for children as young as 12 years of age. At one point we considered requesting an order for a child of only 10 years of age, but then managed to find an alternative way. That is the risk that we are running; some staff are having to cope with very dangerous young children - dangerous to themselves.

247.

Ms Ramsey: I understand the arguments, but I am concerned that 15 children are currently waiting to be placed in secure accommodation. That is scandalous, but, for whatever reason, 87 children are waiting for placement in residential care. Where are they being kept at present?

248.

Ms Millen: Generally they are still in the community, and some of those children are not necessarily -

249.

Ms Ramsey: So children can, for whatever reason, be removed from their families, but because no places are available, they remain with their family?

250.

Ms Millen: That is correct.

251.

Ms Eagleson: Also, some of the placements in foster care may have broken down, or be in the process of breaking down. One of the reasons that we are losing foster carers is that the support services are not around, and residential care, as I have shown in the figures, can provide support to foster carers when they are going through difficult periods. Everything is interconnected and interdependent on residential care, and, with no respite, foster carers are ending up in a crisis situation and saying "I have had enough", and young people end up waiting for a place in residential care.

252.

The Chairperson: So, many of these young people are at risk.

253.

Ms Ramsey: I understand that, Mr Chairman, and I fully support the arguments, but I am concerned about the breakdown in foster care with 271 children waiting to be fostered. The 15 children waiting for secure accommodation will go further and further down the list, and it will reach the stage where they hit rock bottom, because they have nowhere else to go. It is not a big emotive issue, except amongst those personally involved, but somebody is supposed to have a duty of care for them. However, we are discovering through presentations and lobbying that there are children who are knocked back time and time again, because foster care has fallen through. As a result, we end up with more waiting to be fostered and more waiting for residential care or secure accommodation.

254.

Ms Millen: Homes that have been designed for eight children at times have to house up to 12; children sometimes have to sleep on mattresses on the floor. It is, obviously, grossly inappropriate for the young people and causes a strain on the staff and the other children in the unit.

255.

Earlier, Mr McFarland spoke about our proposal being idealistic. We are working in the real world and seeing the damage done to children. We are trying to remain realistic when we say that if we do not get appropriate facilities, and if staff are not given the resources to work with children, there will be a horrendous payback of very damaged young people in later years. One needs only to look at the figures for aftercare, in terms of unemployment and the number of girls who leave care already pregnant, and we are already talking about the second generation.

256.

A very high proportion of children who have been through the so-called care system are found amongst those with mental health and other disorders, alcoholism and those who are homeless. As professionals working in the system we see it from the coal face, and it is not a pretty picture. Unless the resources are made available, then the problem is not going to get any better.

257.

Ms Eagleson: If an appropriate and effective response is not made, those young people may also end up seeking help from probation staff, because if they remain in the community, they will end up, at the very least, on the fringes of criminal activity.

258.

The Chairman: Thank you.

259.

Mr Berry: Thank you for your presentation. I have a fear that, at times, the trusts paint a rosy picture of their area. The most important thing is that the children should come first, but I have always had concern for the social workers who are personally affected by the severe problems that Northern Ireland's children presently face.

260.

There is a severe problem there, for some children who have been abused must wait up to two years for assessment and counselling. Is this problem confined to the Foyle Trust area, or is it across the Province? Has it occurred because of understaffing? Another problem in the Foyle area, and perhaps across the Province, is that social workers themselves are owed quite a number of days in leave, some as many as 400. Why has this occurred?

261.

As has been brought up already, there is presently a severe crisis in the field of fostering. Not having enough care beds in certain areas leads to problems for fostering. I have grave concerns about that. To name but one example, already mentioned by Ms Millen, from 1992 Harberton House in the Foyle Trust area was operated as a 27-bed unit, despite its having been approved and funded for only 20. At different times, the unit has catered for as many as 32, with children regularly forced to lie on floors. This is totally disgraceful.

262.

What way forward can you see? What has your organisation been doing across the Province? Has it approached the Department in relation to this problem? How often have these problems been highlighted? I have a great fear that the trusts are at times attempting to cover up difficult issues because of the dire straits they find themselves in. However, if social workers are having problems as severe as these, it will obviously affect the children as well.

263.

Ms Millen: We have raised the issues and linked up with other organisations. Our union, the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA), has also raised these issues. I shall try to answer some of your points, dealing first with the two years taken for counselling in the Foyle unit. The picture across Northern Ireland is mixed, depending on the availability of facilities. I presume you refer to specialist post-abuse counselling. There is one specialist unit in the Derry area run by the NSPCC. Other statutory organisations in the trusts, for example, the family centres, conduct specialist counselling. There is almost invariably a waiting list for them all. However, the length of time children must wait might be in the order of three months for a referral to a family centre. Two years sounds most extreme. Sometimes other issues are at play, for example, the courts can order assessments to be made. Children who are on a waiting list without having been through the courts can be pushed back. It is a complex matter, the detail of which I should not like to go into at present.

264.

Ms Eagleson: There can indeed be a two-year waiting list for children in need of specialist psychiatric and psychological counselling. We do not have residential facilities for those young people, nor are there presently enough educational, clinical, or adolescent psychologists and psychiatrists to provide that sort of specialist counselling. This means the waiting times can be up to two years, a common feature across most trusts.

265.

Ms Millen: That is right. I was talking about work done by social workers. We can do a fair amount with children, but, as Ms Eagleson says, some need much more specialist work, and a wait of two years can certainly come into it.

266.

Ms Eagleson: I should like to pick up on your comment about the number of children resident in Harberton House. I began my career in residential child care in a 24-bed unit, and the same building now has 10 children. I would describe such a building as institutional in size, although we have moved towards much smaller units. It concerns me that there are even units around with that number of children. There is no way of managing the situation in a secure and effective high-quality manner. These young people will have emotional, psychological and, perhaps, physical needs. Managing 27 young people is a massive workload. In one facility, it is effectively impossible.

267.

Mr Berry: Are you aware that the staff crisis extends beyond the Foyle Trust?

268.

Ms Millen: There is pressure on staff. Fieldwork or rota staff are taken on as and when required to supplement the existing staff in the unit. If a member of staff phones in sick, the person who is expecting to go off duty at 2.00 pm - and who may have already been on duty from the previous day - cannot leave the unit. That has happened. I cannot cite figures at the moment, but many staff have a great deal of statutory leave and time in lieu to take. Foyle has done a staff survey to ascertain the figures, and it is a major issue for many staff.

269.

Staff have a difficulty when the unit is overcrowded, as this causes tension among the children. Some of the children are very difficult and disruptive. Hours are not the only factor; what staff have to endure during those hours plays a role as well. Some staff have been subjected to considerable verbal and physical abuse from young people.

270.

Ms Eagleson: Many units have staff off on long-term sick leave, which is one of the reasons we are dependent on "as and when required" staff. Because of the situation in residential care, people are not applying for posts. Quite a few posts were advertised in last night's 'Belfast Telegraph,' and I wonder just how many people will apply for them, for I know that some of the advertisements are not getting any response.

271.

Ms McWilliams: Your presentation is an extremely realistic one, as it admits that we are in crisis. You have built a framework, and we must address some of the specifics. Mr Chairman, could the Clerk research the number of staff posts unfilled in this area? There has been a breakdown in the co-ordination between secure units, residential homes and foster placements. There is a problem in staffing which has caused a backlog.

272.

Ms Eagleson: And staff on sick leave.

273.

Ms McWilliams: That may prove more difficult. We have looked at the issue of integrating the service. You make the point that the legislation - the Criminal Justice Order - has had implications for children who are leaving secure units or who are detained under custodial sentences; places must be found for them. That, obviously, has huge implications as well.

274.

Ms Eagleson: It has already had implications: it has plunged the residential care system deeper into crisis.

275.

Ms McWilliams: It is also mixing up the kids who are coming in. We heard evidence last week from Ewan McEwan that trusts would have to work more closely together to sort this out. Your model looks at a more integrated service. The Adolescent and Mental Health report proposed two units.

276.

We need to understand what you mean by the word "secure". Does it refer to the custodial or to the mental health needs of the adolescent? Dr McEwan thought that we could perhaps sustain one, with a second one on a cross-border basis, if it were based in the Foyle area. You propose one there.

277.

Ms Eagleson: That is secure accommodation as defined under article 44 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. These are children in the care system who meet the very specific criteria in the Order. They are children who are placing themselves and others at considerable risk of harm. They have to be deprived of their liberty.

278.

Ms McWilliams: Do you suspect that there may be eight?

279.

Ms Eagleson: There are currently eight places in Northern Ireland.

280.

Ms McWilliams: Surely your proposal that there was to be a regional agreement would require more than eight places. Part of the current crisis is that there are only eight places.

281.

Ms Eagleson: I am not so sure about that argument. We began with six secure accommodation places, and we managed to get that increased to eight. Because of the crisis further down the line, there is an increased demand on these places. The current picture is not an accurate one. Many things are impacting on each other. As far as general provision to meet everyone's specialised needs, secure accommodation is the ultimate.

282.

Ms McWilliams: The crisis further down the line is increasing the demand for secure accommodation. If we corrected the provision as far as we could, we would see a reversal in that trend.

283.

Ms Eagleson: That would be my view.

284.

Ms McWilliams: That is a very important point. Our concern would be not to drive people in the direction of secure units.

285.

Ms Millen: It is a principle of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 that children are not placed in lock-up units 24 hours a day. That would happen only in very extreme cases. Often, as Ms Eagleson points out, the reason is the lack of other facilities and the fact that children are extremely disruptive and difficult, presenting a risk either to themselves or others. Often, that is the only way they can be contained.

286.

Ms McWilliams: You have clarified one of my biggest constituency problems. Children are on the streets, and communities are having enormous difficulties with them. In Northern Ireland in the past, the response has been to call in someone to get them out using physical violence. Communities are trying not to do that. However, there is no support if bed spaces are limited. You are making a crucial point about what is going on in our communities and why anti-social behaviour has ended up in the crisis it is in.

287.

I know that the figure has come from a departmental review, but there is a dispute about whether eight places are too many. You have said that each home or unit should have from four to eight places. Eight places sounds quite high, given the special needs we are talking about. If you are working continually with these young people and are building relationships with them, what would the ideal number be?

288.

Ms Eagleson: That is why I said that each unit must have a clear statement of purpose. The numbers that could be accommodated in each home would result from that. Some of the smaller more specialised units where there are children with very difficult behavioural, emotional and psychological problems need about four places. However, if children are in for assessment, with a view to respite or are moving on to another place - and they are settled children - then eight places is a manageable number. I am speaking from seven years' experience in residential childcare in a variety of settings. I have worked in 24-bed units and in 10-bed units. Eight is a manageable number if you have a settled population.

289.

I am also talking about children who view residential care as the best option. Some children, particularly adolescents, do not want a replacement family. They want somewhere in a residential facility where they can achieve whatever they wish.

290.

Ms Armitage: You say that 37% of children are affected by poverty. You also indicate that 30% are affected by mental health problems. Is there any relation? Is mental health related to poverty? Has there been any research on that?

291.

Ms Eagleson: Research into adolescent mental health problems was published approximately three years ago in Northern Ireland. I am not up to date with that piece of research.

292.

Ms Armitage: How would you convince people that an ombudsman is the best way forward? I think we have accepted that we are not going to have a Minister for Children.

293.

Could more be done to improve the incentive to foster? More fostering would surely give us a better baseline.

294.

The numbers of one-parent families and teenage pregnancies are particularly high in Northern Ireland, compared to those in the rest of the United Kingdom. Is that going to be an ongoing problem for you?

295.

Ms Eagleson: I like to describe the context for children's services in Northern Ireland using the model of a mobile. No individual programme, whether it be diversionary programmes, family support programmes, foster care or residential care, can operate in isolation. They all depend on and support one another.

296.

Next week is national foster care week. We have seen this year in, year out. There will be a great deal of publicity and people in shopping centres trying to encourage people to become foster carers. One of the issues is that there are higher thresholds for young people coming into the looked-after system, which means that you are not just asking residential workers to deal with more chronic and complex problems, but you are also asking foster carers to deal with those as well. There are a lot of issues around that. There are some young people who just cannot be fostered.

297.

There are training and support issues and recruitment issues in relation to fostering, as there are in relation to residential workers. Then there are the wider issues of diversionary programmes, family support programmes and community work that need to be done on the ground to enable families and communities to support young people so that they do not come into the looked-after system in the first place. Everything depends on all of those parts.

298.

The Chairperson: Will the legislation on fostering currently going through the Assembly be helpful?

299.

Ms Eagleson: That legislation is about adoption, rather than fostering.

300.

The Chairperson: I beg your pardon.

301.

Ms Armitage: How would you convince the public that the ombudsman is the best way forward?

302.

Ms Eagleson: I have made some arguments in our paper. The ombudsman is going to oversee the needs and requirements of our young people - the citizens of the future. They are an extremely important part of our community. If we do not invest in them we are laying down problems for the future of the country. In the absence of a Minister, an ombudsman will make sure that legislation, policies and procedures - the services that are around for children and young people - and the relevant research will be drawn together in one office. The ombudsman will oversee that and childproof the decision-making process, whether it be in the children's homes or here in Stormont.

303.

Ms Armitage: Teenage pregnancy concerns me. Some of these teenage mothers are nothing more than children themselves. Is there anything more that can be done? If that trend continues, we are going to have an ongoing problem.

304.

Ms Millen: This is a very complex issue. It needs to be tackled on many fronts. One of the things is education and giving young people hope. It is wider than sex education. Children need real education and the hope of a job in the future. Many children are in a cycle where they cannot see any future. They feel that they might as well get pregnant, because at least it gives them something to do with life. It gives them someone to love, a focus for their lives. It is a broad- based problem. It is very difficult. There is an increase in the figures. The subject came up the other day, and I had the up-to-date figures to hand, but I did not bring them with me today. It is a very difficult and widespread problem.

305.

You also asked about fostering. As my colleague has mentioned, the children for whom we need to find foster homes are increasingly difficult. The changing shape of the family in Northern Ireland, as in the United Kingdom and across Europe, also impacts on our work. Increasing numbers of women are working; increasingly, families are one-parent units. Our recruitment policies reflect our attempts to extend the range and level of foster parents generally. Again, finance is important; we are trying to recruit people, paying them wages, having them specially trained and increasing their incentives, but, as Ms Eagleson has said, it is very difficult.

306.

Ms Hanna: We certainly need an overhaul of children's services. The number of children who come in contact with social services is increasing. What percentage of them needs residential care?

307.

Ms Eagleson: Twelve per cent of the children looked after in 1998 required residential care. There have been fluctuations, but this is quite a static figure.

308.

Ms Hanna: Is the staff ratio as high as 1:1 in residential care? I know from talking to social workers and staff in residential homes that there is a great deal of frustration about understaffing, particularly because of its impact on discipline.

309.

Ms Millen: The highest ratio is 1:2 in the secure unit. In a lot of our general units there are two or three staff for up to eight children or more. This makes it very difficult to do any sort of effective work with the children, or even to supervise them. Some of the children make allegations against staff, so some staff do not like being alone with children in case of that. If you need two staff to escort a child somewhere, and you only have three staff on duty, it becomes ridiculous.

310.

Ms Hanna: A lot of frustration seems to centre around discipline problems, especially with foster parents. Has the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 exacerbated that in any way?

311.

Ms Eagleson: I do not think the Order has exacerbated anything. One of the good things about the Order is that it lays down a model for good practice. It identified the fact that children are children first. Part four talks about children in need, and that includes teenagers who get pregnant, children who require support services, children with a disability, children with emotional or psychological problems, children who are at risk of offending and children who are living in poverty and parenting themselves as a result of parental abuse of alcohol, drugs or mental-health problems.

312.

As a practitioner, I welcomed the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. Rising thresholds for children coming into the looked-after system has meant that we are dealing with much more chronic problems. Communities and families are being expected to resolve problems as close to the home as possible, and that is generally the best way. Part five of the Order covers the draconian but necessary measure of interfering in family life and having to remove a child. Part four is about family support and identifying children in need and areas where we need to set up support services. The NSPCC and the Early Years Programmes are taking much of that on board, and children's service planning, which is being introduced by all the trusts, is also involved. The Order highlighted a lot of gaps.

313.

Ms Millen: Although the children being looked after were getting more difficult anyway, one change which affected discipline was that the role of the training schools ended with the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, and to a greater extent with the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998. Up until that time, if children were very difficult or disruptive in, excuse the expression, "normal" children's homes, they could be transferred relatively easily to the care side of the training schools. That finished with the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The training schools as care units were abolished, and that was a challenge for the children's homes, but that was happening anyway. The whole principle was to try to avoid the use of training schools and try to contain more difficult children in the more normal units anyway. That was one partial effect.

314.

Mr Gallagher: The social workers that deal with children clearly have a very difficult task, and you have outlined the main problems. Can you quantify some things so that we have a better idea of what we are talking about? In the proposed model, you have three categories, specialists, secure accommodation and the sub-region of local provision. Are you able to say what number of children you feel should be catered for under each of those three headings? You also mentioned expulsions from mainstream education. How is that compounding difficulties in your sector, and can you quantify that?

315.

Ms Eagleson: I mentioned the Looking after Children system, which came on the back of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. That has not been put into place, and that system would enable you to quantify some of the numbers who are going through the system at present, but, unfortunately, the LAC system, as it stands, is not implemented in every trust. You are not going to get a consistent picture. That is something that I think the trust would have to answer, and I am aware that there is a task force working on Children Matter. That would be a good question to put to them.

316.

Mr McFarland: We talked about the secure units for people who are a danger to themselves and to others on the health side. Presumably we are also looking at a secure unit for children on the justice side, and the person who is put away by the health courts cannot stay in that unit. We are talking about two types of secure unit in Northern Ireland.

317.

Ms Millen: That is already in existence. There are two separate systems at the moment, and there would be a secure unit in Lisnevin and Rathgael.

318.

Mr McFarland: As you know, the plan is for Lisnevin to close. They are talking about having one unit - possibly two - although they were not sure where they were going to be. I am just confirming that we are not looking at the same -

319.

Ms Millen: This is a review in relation to residential care and secure accommodation for children under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.

320.

Mr McFarland: At the moment it all gets confusing - children are still being locked up. The second point is a confusion I have, and that is in terms of the numbers of homes involved here. Currently there are 78 places for residential care and eight for secure. The document says that 86 places are currently available. Is that right?

321.

Ms Millen: I know they are eight secure accommodation places. I am not sure where they are. Those are the total numbers in Northern Ireland.

322.

Mr McFarland: I have just taken them out of your document. Let me count. Yes, there are 86 places and eight of those are secure - there are 78 residential places in Northern Ireland.

323.

You have 2,345 children being looked after in 1998, according to the figures I received. Of those children, 12% were in need of residential care. That works out at roughly 260 children. Taking your figure for each home, that is a total of four per home. Clearly that is unlikely to happen. You could not have them all in at one time, because there would be 260 cases.

324.

Ms Millen: It is over a period of one year, and some of those would be quite short-term placements.

325.

Mr McFarland: If you do the maths on this, if you do it with four children, and they are there long term with 65 homes which, presumably it would not be. That is a substantial number of homes with four to eight children in each. That is 2 staff per -

326.

The Chairperson: One.

327.

Mr McFarland: Is that for secure or residential care?

328.

Ms Eagleson: Nobody recommended a staff ratio, however there was a question about ratios.

329.

Mr McFarland: Was that for secure units? What is the residential figure?

330.

Ms Eagleson: I refer you to the statement. That is the purpose and plan that the residential unit is working to.

331.

Mr McFarland: There must also be residential homes that have a staffing ratio laid down.

332.

Ms Millen: It is two to three staff per eight or nine children.

333.

Mr McFarland: If you add the number of homes and you add the number of staff, this would result in quite a substantial bill. I am concerned with what we are looking at here. With regard to the number of homes, are we looking at, perhaps, 40 or 50 homes?

334.

Ms Eagleson: The 'Children Matter' document contains a record of these figures. There is a taskforce devoted to 'Children Matter' which, I assume, will discuss the current figures, trends and financial aspects supplied by this body. I must emphasise that we need those figures, and we do not receive them regularly from trusts. The LAC system provides these figures, however it has not been fully implemented. The taskforce must find ways and means of acquiring these figures.

335.

Mr McFarland: We do not have the base figures to make a reasoned judgement of how much money and how many homes we are going to need.

336.

Ms Millen: We are going on these figures in the meantime.

337.

Ms Eagleson: Referring to 'Children Matter' in 1998 and Horgan and Sinclair's work 'Planning on Residential Care' published shortly before that, did either contain many of these figures? We will need to have the current information, and I hope the taskforce will be able to provide that.

338.

The Chairperson: Perhaps you will receive a letter. We received one dated 20 September from the Minister today, and there is a relevant paragraph in it. This states

"In constructing the regional plan, capital costs, revenue implications and staffing requirements will be taken into account, and proposals for alternative sources of funding, specifically in the private and voluntary sectors, will be considered."

339.

Mr McFarland: We do not have the figures upon which to base any political or even health judgement so as to discuss what is needed.

340.

Ms Eagleson: There are figures in the 'Children Matter' document, and there is also the social service client administration and retrieval environment system operated by all trusts. These can provide you with those figures.

341.

The Chairperson: We have past figures, however, we do not have up-to-date ones.

342.

Ms Eagleson: I cannot provide current figures; that is the responsibility of each trust. That is something the Department requests from them every year.

343.

Mr J Kelly: You say in your report that 37% of children in the North of Ireland are affected by poverty, but most children in need of care come from an impoverished background. Would there be a preponderance of children coming from teenage parents going into care?

344.

Ms Eagleson: First of all, poverty and children living in poverty could be an area which is identified for children in need. The boards have acknowledged that, and it was one of the criteria laid down. They do not necessarily come into the looked-after children system, but they most definitely require support services and recognition.

345.

Ms Millen: Research will show that a preponderance of children who are in care come from an impoverished background. You would not take children into care just because they are impoverished, but that would be one of the factors that could lead to it, and not just in Northern Ireland but across the United Kingdom as a whole.

346.

Mr J Kelly: That would mean that perhaps children who come from better off backgrounds and who might be in need of care do not get into care.

347.

Ms Millen: You tend to find that better off families would make other arrangements. They can buy care themselves. They would not necessarily need public care. It is one of the major contributing factors, but it is not the only one. There is research around on how children come into care, and poverty is certainly one of the major issues.

348.

Ms Eagleson: I would like to say that children come into care for a variety of reasons. Neglect and abuse certainly cross all community divides and all classes. Neglected or abused children do not necessarily come from an impoverished background.

349.

Mr J Kelly: What about children from teenage parents?

350.

Ms Eagleson: Teenage parents - I do not have any figures, but I would not say that would be true at all. I say, from my own experience, that young mothers require a lot of support in the community, and field social workers work along with them.

351.

Ms Millen: It would depend on the young parent's own family circumstances and how much support they would have. They would certainly not be coming into residential care.

352.

The Chairperson: Thank you very much. I would like to draw this part of our meeting to a close. Ms Eagleson and Ms Millen, first of all, on behalf of our Committee, I thank you most sincerely for coming along here this afternoon. You gave us your documentation, and that was a big help, and you answered our questions. We thank you for your excellent presentation, and you can be assured that the very important points you have been making will be taken on board. We will be presenting our report in the not too distant future. On behalf of everyone here, thank you very much indeed.

Dr Hendron (Chairperson)
Mr Gallagher (Deputy Chairperson)
Ms Armitage
Mr Berry
Rev Robert Coulter
Ms Hanna
Mr J Kelly
Mr McFarland
Ms McWilliams

Ms B de Brún )

Dr K McCoy ) Department of Health, Social
Mr L Frew ) Services and Public Safety
Mr C Gowdy )

353.

The Chairperson: You are very welcome. Thank you for coming. The purpose of your coming along is to talk about residential and secure accommodation for children, and I shall most certainly not attempt to direct the discussion on to anything else, but it would be wrong of me not to give at least a mention to the current acute crisis. I know you are concerned about it yourself. There is an ongoing crisis in the acute hospital sector, and we are all aware of what is happening: the stories about patients on trolleys in the Mater Hospital; the problems with the Ulster Hospital; Craigavon Area Hospital. I know you have made a statement about that today. My colleagues and I are extremely concerned. I should like to make that point without inviting discussion of it, but you may wish to make some comment on that. We shall move straight on to residential secure accommodation for children.

354.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (Ms de Brún): Thank you very much for the invitation. We discussed the acute hospital sector at our last meeting, along with certain problems in relation to the increased funding needed and the difficulties facing the entire service. I have also written to members about specific hospitals' capacity difficulties and how we are addressing those. I shall not go into detail. Obviously, I share your concerns, and I am doing everything possible to address those difficulties. They particularly highlight the need in the sector we are dealing with today, as in others, for the kind of increased funding for which I have fought, and which I shall discuss with my colleagues in the forthcoming period.

355.

In reference to the situation in Craigavon in particular, I have asked for a meeting with the chairman of the trust concerned. I have also asked for a report from the Southern Health and Social Services Board. I am concerned that the letter was set out in stark terms, seeming to suggest that other options were not available, rather than coming forward with a recovery plan for us to discuss and agree.

356.

There are a number of options for any trust facing difficulties. The last time I was here, you impressed upon me the requirement for efficiencies and the need to deal specifically with trust deficits. A trust can rephase expenditure, look at the efficiency with which it carries out its business and examine other ways of cutting back unnecessary expenditure. It is necessary for the boards and for us to enter into dialogue with trusts in difficulties to see how to overcome the deficits.

357.

Returning to the question of expenditure, the problems the trusts are facing - and I have made this point to the committee - are in large part due to the difficulties over the years, particularly the underfunding of service provision in recent history. We must all work together to see how these deficits can be tackled, how we can ensure that budgets are balanced and services delivered, and how we can be assured of the necessary funding for the entire service.

358.

The Chairperson: Thank you very much. As I said, I am not trying to start a discussion.

359.

Mr Berry: We are all aware of the health service's present problems. I visited Craigavon Area Hospital last night, and it is worth noting how, in recent years, management costs, especially in the last annual report, have got lower. However, the £2 million deficit leaves things up in the air for the hospital. The staff and everyone there are in dire straits, something representative of hospitals right across the Province, and it is vitally important that the department sit down with the trusts to try to work something out, for these deficits are hanging over their heads. Sadly, patients and the community as a whole are suffering as a result.

360.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: I agree totally. It is important that trust, board and department sit down to discuss matters. Other trusts are doing that already, and I hope this trust will too.

361.

Mr Gowdy: As accounting officer, I am concerned about accountability to the Assembly for trust expenditure. When the deficits emerged in August, I wrote in that capacity to all the chairmen, saying we needed to see recovery plans from them, which they should agree with us. The next step is for them to come to us with their proposals and for us to go through them in detail. We are certainly not forcing them to do the sorts of things flagged up in the letter from the Craigavon trust. We expect them to talk to us about the period over which recovery can be sustained. There are therefore issues for discussion directly between the department and the trust.

362.

The Chairperson: We can now move on.

363.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: I am very grateful for the opportunity to make a few opening remarks to the committee on the subject of residential care and secure accommodation for children. I should like to emphasise my personal commitment - something we have discussed on previous occasions - to ensuring that we do all we can to provide a better future for children in the residential care system. I know that the committee has taken evidence from a number of organisations and that there are widespread concerns about children's services, and residential care in particular. I am well aware of these concerns. We shall be able to discuss the issues further today, and I look forward to seeing the Committee's report in due course.

364.

I accept that there are major problems to be addressed. Many of these problems have built up over a number of years and will take time to resolve. Nevertheless, further action is needed to improve the level and quality of children's residential care, and progress is required as a matter of some urgency. I will give that my personal attention.

365.

With regard to secure accommodation, we all recognise that the liberty of children should only be restricted when absolutely necessary, and only in strict compliance with the law. We should not lose sight of the fact that more residential care places and specialist provision are required to deal with the particular and sometimes complex needs of children. I fully appreciate the committee's concern about residential care, because this aspect of children's services impacts upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society. There are major difficulties in developing residential care, particularly in relation to staffing and planning issues. Despite the efforts that have been made to tackle the problem, it has been accepted that progress to date has been disappointing.

366.

Since the publication of 'Children Matter,' four residential children's homes have been opened. Two of these are in Derry, at Chapel Road and Racecourse Road, and the others are in Newry and Killadeas, County Fermanagh. However, the overall number of new places has often been offset by closures elsewhere. There is an urgent need for more residential care places. There must also be an improvement in the quality of service, with greater differentiation in the type of services provided to ensure that the different and sometimes complex needs of individual children can be meet. Too many of the existing homes are general purpose in nature and they take children with conflicting needs.

367.

In the relatively short time in which I have held ministerial responsibility, I have been able to take some preliminary steps to improve the position - and they are only some preliminary steps. The committee is aware that in the current financial year an additional £8·5 million is being made available for children's services, including residential care. The committee is also aware that I set up a 'Children Matter' task force, led by a senior official in my department, with representatives from the four health and social services boards. By November, the task force will produce a regional plan for the future of children's residential care, and it will meet on a monthly basis after the plan is drawn up to ensure that it is put into effect.

368.

I made it clear to the task force that I anticipate regular reports, and I will share those with the Committee as a further means of maintaining the momentum and ensuring that the work that needs to be carried out is done. I expect the task force to produce a plan, which will set out real, quantifiable improvements to be made this year and over the next three years. The plan will have to be realistic and achievable in the light of all the difficult issues that must be faced. In the short term, I expect that four new homes will be established by the end of this financial year, providing a total of some 28 additional places.

369.

As I have said, these are initial steps. More needs to be done in relation to residential care and a wider range of children's social services. I want to add some brief comments on the overall position with regard to these wider issues, rather than taking residential care and secure accommodation in isolation, because it is vital that residential care is supported by, and supports, a range of other services. Therefore, in relation to the resources made available to the boards in the current year, the department emphasised the need to develop residential care and other children's services, including fostering.

370.

Boards have set out their intentions to apply the additional resources to the development of residential services, the continued implementation of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and the improvement of fostering budgets to increase payments to carers and provide greater support to foster carers. Among the fostering initiatives being undertaken by boards and trusts is the development of a regional strategy to address recruitment difficulties. This will introduce training plans for foster carers and fostering staff, and assist the development of local support groups for foster carers.

371.

A further area, in which work is currently proceeding, is adoption. At present, the social services inspectorate is carrying out a review of adoption services with the aim of bringing adoption more into the mainstream of childcare services. The review will be completed later in the year and will show how to strengthen our adoption services so that adoption can be considered as an option for more children in care.

372.

On the wider issue of the strategic development of services, I want to mention children service plans. In July 1998 a duty was placed on each health and social services board to produce a children services plan. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that the boards work in collaboration with other voluntary and statutory organisations in assessing need and providing an appropriate range of services. The first plans were produced by 31 March 1999 and boards completed reviews of their initial plans in March this year. The development of the children services plans has proved a complex exercise for the boards and other agencies. Work on this will continue at local level with the involvement of voluntary organisations and others. We will build and improve on the work going on there at present.

373.

We also need to have a regional overview of the way forward for children's services, building on 'Children Matter,' the Social Services Inspectorate 1998 report on fostering, the inspectorate's ongoing review of adoption services and the two new Bills on aftercare services and child protection. Those are just a few examples.

374.

On this occasion the committee has, quite rightly, focused on residential care as a priority area, but I want to address the wider issues. I hope I have given an idea of the key elements of the work in hand across the range of children's services. I intend to bring the outcome of that work together in a comprehensive and deliverable set of proposals for the future of children's services. I will be working closely with the boards, the trusts and, I hope, the committee.

375.

The Chairperson: What are your views on how best to safeguard and monitor the usage of future funding for children's services given the history of underfunding and the moneys being diverted elsewhere by boards and trusts?

376.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Last week we dealt with the question of earmarking services and whether other interim measures can be taken. When additional moneys were made available, we made it clear what those moneys were for and that we wanted to see plans from the boards. We also made it clear that we wanted reports on how that was being carried out. I am looking at different ways of ensuring that money which is made available for certain matters is, in fact, used for those matters. One way would be through accountability reviews and another would be for boards to come back if they wanted to use moneys that were allocated for certain matters. The other question that came up last week was whether, in some circumstances, we should go as far on certain issues as to specifically earmark funding. I have not reached a decision on that yet.

377.

The Chairperson: It cannot be ring-fenced, but that is what it amounts to. I do take your point though.

378.

Mr Gallagher: You mentioned that four new homes have been opened and that there will be four more by March 2001. How many of those will be operated by the private sector? You mentioned the one at Killadeas, which is operated privately. Some people here will be aware of the difficult situation there and the local residents' views on the opening of the home. Do you agree that the planning arrangements need to be clarified? The residents feel aggrieved that, although the planners acted within their rights, the application for the Killadeas home described it as a residential home. The assumption was that it was a home for the elderly rather than for children. Does the department agree that clarification is required and has it given consideration to how such developments should be described in future planning applications?

379.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Of the eight homes you refer to, one is a private home and seven are public, and you have already mentioned the private one. There is clearly local opposition to new homes. This difficult issue needs to be handled with sensitivity and I expect boards and trusts to work collaboratively with local communities to do everything possible to ensure that new children's homes are accepted by local residents. I appeal, however, to members of this committee, in their capacity as Assembly Members, to help pre-empt hostility to the siting of homes in their areas by helping people to understand that a residential home is a residential home, and that we cannot confront their anxieties unless the children's homes are sited somewhere. It is essential that people work with local communities to raise awareness and understanding of those valued members of our society who need services, who need help, and who need our welcome and understanding.

380.

Mr Gallagher: Is the department satisfied with the descriptions that are currently used in planning applications for homes?

381.

Mr Frew: Yes, the department assumes that people applying for planning permission are describing accurately what they intend to build. If that were not the case, the application would be challenged. However, we are not aware that that is widespread practice.

382.

Mr J Kelly: First, who will be given personal responsibility for implementing the task force action plan and how will progress be reported and monitored? Secondly, in 1998 the Labour Government granted the sum of £370 million over three years -

383.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: I did not catch the last question. Can you repeat it?

384.

Mr J Kelly: In 1998 the Labour Government granted some £370 million over three years for quality protection programmes for children under the care of local authorities in England and Wales. The policy is already showing positive results. What steps have been taken to ensure that such a policy is implemented here? On a pro rata basis, £12 million should be made available here.

385.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Personal responsibility for the task force is twofold, and you are lucky to have both people in the room today. As Minister, I have overall responsibility, and Mr Frew has day-to-day responsibility. He will monitor and report to me, and he can answer any questions you may have on how he intends to monitor the boards and trusts.

386.

Mr J Kelly: It is important that someone is accountable, someone to whom we can bring our problems.

387.

Mr Frew: The main point of setting up a task force was for the Minister to have an overview and for the department to be able to view the problem on a regional basis. Trusts have sometimes had to operate on their own, because boards have limited responsibilities. Staffing, staff training, and proper manpower planning will have to be addressed so that when we establish homes we will be able to staff them properly.

388.

That was the point of setting up the regional group. The group will report to the Minister on a regular basis and, as the Minister said in her introductory remarks, she will apprise the committee of progress. We envisage that the taskforce will exist for at least three years to ensure that we achieve what we are setting out to achieve.

389.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: On your second point, the issues that I referred to in my opening statement include how we approach the issues looked at by the Quality Protects Programme. When the Quality Protects Programme was launched in England it comprised: new national objectives for children's services; a new special grant for children's services; a requirement for local authorities to develop management action plans; new guidance for the local authority and councillors emphasising their role as corporate parents.

390.

As you can tell, some of those points are applicable to Northern Ireland and some are not. The proposal for a regional overview is to replicate the objectives on the agenda of the Quality Protects Programme, and I have already outlined some of the measures. In England £380 million has been made available over that period, and when I know what funding is available to me I will be in a better position to discuss what funds I can make available for the various programmes.

391.

Mr J Kelly: Does that money have to come from within your budget?

392.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: All money comes from within the block grant and is allocated on a departmental basis. At present I do not know what the allocation to my department will be.

393.

Mr McFarland: I have two questions. The first relates to the different types of secure care for children; one is through the criminal justice system, and the other is residential secure accommodation for children who may harm themselves or others. Given that criminal justice is a non-devolved matter, how do you clarify the linkages and discuss the provision of such accommodation? In theory they are similar, but they come under two different departments.

394.

Secondly, witnesses have reported on the impact on service provision of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, with many 10-13-year- olds who would otherwise have been entering a custodial setting being looked after in residential care. How is this development being factored into resource bids and plans for future provision?

395.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: On both those issues it is the outworking of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 that determines the kind of homes that are available and the way in which this accommodation is provided. The increased number of children in residential care accommodation is a development that we welcome, but a significant additional burden for resources has been placed on the department, and that has been factored into the bids, allocations and plans for children's services that I have outlined.

396.

Dr McCoy: There are no clear linkages between the two types of secure accommodation. They serve different purposes. The criminal justice secure accommodation is intended for youngsters who commit offences where secure care is a necessary follow-up, where the offences are very violent or of a sexual nature, or where the offender refuses to give consent to a community service programme. The secure care that is provided to children who are looked after is intended to meet certain needs of children who abscond and are incapable of being maintained in other residential settings, but who are generally not offenders. They are for two distinct purposes.

397.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: The department is aware that the changes in the nature of the residential homes and the changing legal status of the homes came about as a result of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The department is also aware of its responsibilities to those who fall within its remit as a result of that.

398.

Mr McFarland: My understanding is that under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 the protection of children and the looking after of children come under the same requirement. Is that correct?

399.

Dr McCoy: No. The provision for children in secure care falls under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, but the Criminal Justice (Children) Order (Northern Ireland) 1998 governs the conduct of secure care for juvenile offenders. They are two different pieces of legislation.

400.

Ms McWilliams: I have learned a great deal from you about what exists and what is being proposed. It has been extremely helpful.

401.

We have taken evidence on how the different parts of the system are being picked up. We were concerned to learn that a reason why fewer people are coming forward to be recruited as fosterers is that they were getting more disturbed and disturbing children. That is backed up by the fact that we do not have the residential capacity, and therefore foster parents have to take on children that they may not have had in the past.

402.

That applies everywhere in the sector. We are concerned that there is a social work post advertised in this area but not filled. Children are so important that people went into the field of social work not just as a profession but as a vocation. It is extremely disturbing for us to hear this evidence.

403.

People have already told us about the boundary disputes that exist between trusts, area boards and disciplines. I refer to the 'Children Matter' task force and I am concerned that it has a time span of three years. There might be a good reason for this time scale or I may have misheard you, but I am concerned that you have appointed four people from the area boards plus departmental responsibility. Please correct me if I am wrong, because I have not seen the list.

404.

Have we not missed something here? Should there not have been representatives of regional voluntary organisations on the task force? We are hearing evidence from them and they are very close to the ground. They provide projects with hands-on experience and yet they appear to be missing from this taskforce. We do not have much of a link-up between the different parts of the system.

405.

I visited a project in Middletown that is closed now; that has been discussed in the committee before. What is happening to the educational needs of those young people? It was not just accommodation and safety that was being provided for these young people at Middletown. They were also being educated. Now they are being spread out and supposedly "mainstreamed," but their needs will not be met because they have special criminal justice, social services, adolescent and mental health needs.

406.

That is a very serious issue. Will you consider setting up an inter-departmental committee? Given that the human rights legislation was just introduced on Monday, it will take us some time to go down that road.

407.

We do not want to end up in the courts. Ewan McEwan told us that a great deal of his time is spent going through the courts because he represents young people. Will the Minister recommend an ombudsperson for children, as exists elsewhere? We do not have a Minister for Children and it is unlikely that we will get a junior Minister for children though it would be great if we did.

408.

Outside Great Britain and the Irish Republic, we do not have a particular portfolio allowing all these organisations to say there is someone with particular responsibility for children. I say that because you are overloaded. You have acute care, mental health, all of these other services - and children. From what I hear, children's services seem to be losing out.

409.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: I know you did not mean to say that children's services are losing out because I am overloaded. That is not the issue. It is a historical problem, and in my short time as Minister I have addressed it quite assiduously.

410.

I shall certainly look at the possibility of setting up a committee. There is also the question of whether all children will eventually be looked after in one sector rather than in a variety of sectors. That is also a long-term issue. However, I shall certainly look at the present situation, where they are looked after by different departments with different responsibilities.

411.

You know my position on the idea of a commissioner for children. In my present capacity, it is clearly something I should have to discuss with my colleagues in the Executive. You will also know that, during the negotiations, I personally floated the idea of a Minister for Children. The specific intention of the task force is to ensure that the boards and other organisations planning to set up new residential homes take all the factors into account, and that they swap information and make sure of clear monitoring and oversight of questions such as planning permission and staffing arrangements, so that one trust does not set up a brand-new home with staff who are simply recruited from another area.

412.

Mr Frew: I am happy to comment on one or two points, the first being the three-year period you mentioned. The task force wants to make sure we do not get a plan to which everyone signs up, only for someone else to be left to get on with matters. We wish to ensure that we remain in existence over the period it will take to deliver the plan. Fifteen new homes with over 100 additional places will obviously take time to deliver, not least because of staffing problems, as the Minister said. We must recruit and train additional staff to run these homes, and that will take time. We want to have something practical and favourable, and one must be realistic and accept that it will take a little time to deliver.

413.

We shall obviously want to involve the private and voluntary sectors in the provision of these services. I have undertaken, as soon as the task force gets the plan together and reports to the Minister at the beginning of November, to go back to the voluntary sector, tell them what we have in mind, and give them the opportunity to play their part as providers. At the same time, we are encouraging the boards to hold discussions with the voluntary sectors in their areas now, taking on board their comments and bringing them to the task force.

414.

We have regular, ongoing contacts with the voluntary sector, and a broad range of people are represented on the taskforce. We are taking concerns on board and shall share the plan specifically once we have agreed it with the Minister.

415.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: There is one other aspect of Prof McWilliams' question that I have not answered. It related to the workforce for social work posts. Clearly, there are difficulties in meeting targets for producing additional qualified social workers to implement the strategy. As she said, it is very difficult and challenging. I would like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to those who are carrying on this work and who, as she said, carry it on not just as a job but as a vocation.

416.

We are looking at a number of issues, including a major advertising campaign with the training agency to promote social work as a career choice. The social work trainee scheme, which is being highlighted by the four health boards, has begun to attract more applications. In relation to family and childcare there is a specialist post-qualifying social work programme, which has now been approved and which will run at Queen's University from next February. In recent times, we have discovered that, since 1995, the output from social work qualifying training has declined by 22%.

417.

Ms McWilliams: Is that only amongst family and childcare social workers or does that figure include all social workers?

418.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: It includes them all. For example, in 1998-99 there was an intake of only 204 people, which was 25% below target. The things that I am trying to do, as outlined, are over and above the work on other problems.

419.

The Chairperson: Minister, I listened carefully to your replies in response to the points made by Ms McWilliams, and, in particular, to those about the co-ordination of services for children with the voluntary sector. You also mentioned discussions, prior to the formation of the Assembly, about a Minister for Children. I know that you are looking at this possibility and I strongly support the idea of a commissioner, or some other such person, to co-ordinate all of the services for children on an ongoing basis.

420.

Mr Berry: The lack of provision for children with mental health difficulties and use of adult psychiatric wards for their treatment is a cause of much concern. One recent study found that 67% of children in care had psychiatric disorders. Leading aftercare practitioners have noted that there is clearly a need but also a gap in the provision for this group. What mental health support services are being developed for 16-to-18-year-olds?

421.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: You will be aware that I am concerned about that, and that an extra £1 million has been provided this year. As I said last week when discussing the budget, the area of mental health services - and particularly adolescent mental health services - features specifically in one of the bids that I have made for this year.

422.

Mr Frew: In January 1999 the department issued a policy statement on this, and it was obvious that there was unmet need. In response to this statement the four health boards carried out a joint review of child and adolescent mental health services. The review demonstrated all of the things that you have mentioned: the wider needs of vulnerable children; waiting times for assessment et cetera; that vulnerable young people are being admitted to adult wards; and that treatment for some of the conditions is not available.

423.

On the back of that we are working up proposals, which will be coming to the Minister soon, as to how we need to expand the services to ensure that each board has proper adolescent psychiatry support, both in its hospitals and also within the community. Those are our intentions and we will report to the Minister soon and should be taking the matter forward by way of consultation.

424.

Ms McWilliams: That is also important for this committee. Perhaps we could have some liaison with the Minister after she has responded in order that that can feed into her evidence.

425.

The Chairperson: That would be very helpful

426.

Mr Frew: Needless to say, the problem is in identifying significant additional resources, so that is just another priority for the Minister and the committee.

427.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: As I stated earlier, much of this is dependent on the resources that I get for the department, and so my response, notwithstanding my recognition of the difficulties, will depend on the level of resources.

428.

The Chairperson: We obviously support your request for £274 million on top of the baseline figures, and hope that your colleagues in the Executive are listening. We encourage them - and especially the Minister for Finance - to accede to your request.

429.

Ms Armitage: You mentioned in passing the review of the Adoption Bill, and I think that your term was 'looked-after children'. Do you really feel that the new review of the adoption process will have much impact on children-related problems?

430.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Yes. There are now more possibilities of attracting people single women, for example, to take on adoption. I think it will have a significant impact, because we know that children who are adopted have more stability and fare better - particularly compared to those in placements where there are a number of changes rather than one stable setting. I do not think it will make the difference on its own, but I think it will make a difference if we tackle the problems of fostering: more fosterers; more support for them; addressing the difficulties of moving placements; proper differentiated residential care, as opposed to the general purpose kind that we have at present. I think that overall you will see a very different picture.

431.

Then, of course, you have to talk about the other issues such as those that Monica McWilliams raised about the overlap between health and education and ensuring the education of looked-after children. But, again, a lot of the disruption to the education of looked-after children occurs when children are moving from one placement to another. If they are in a stable setting - if they are adopted or in a stable foster care setting, going to the same school with backup support - then that is better for the child. If they are in a differentiated children's home, rather than sharing with a complex mix of ages and needs - such as vulnerable or disturbed children - then that has an impact as well. Each of these will make a difference if we tackle them in turn, which is why I am proposing this regional overview looking at all of the elements that we need to move forward on at the same time.

432.

Ms Armitage: I find that answer very interesting. I always thought there were more adoptive parents than there were children. Are you saying that you can see that situation changing?

433.

Mr Gowdy: The figures demonstrate that levels of adoption here are lower than in Great Britain so, taking it on a UK-wide basis, we are adopting fewer children than anywhere else. That must be an issue that we can do something about. The reasons are not immediately evident as there are all sorts of causal factors in the background, but the figure is below 3%. Some parts of England are substantially higher than that. There is scope for more to be done to encourage adoption.

434.

Dr McCoy: We are talking about children being looked after by the trusts, and it is clear that our trusts do not perceive adoption as a viable option. There are legal difficulties to overcome, because some of these children have to be freed for adoption, and that can be a difficult and prolonged exercise. However, there is no doubt that it does offer another opportunity for providing children with greater stability and a better life chance in that sense, and we need to begin to tackle that. The gap that Clive Gowdy mentioned is that less than 3% of children looked after in Northern Ireland are placed for adoption. In some local authorities in England it is as high as 30%.

435.

Ms Armitage: I would welcome the review. I know of a situation where a mother who was trying to adopt a child suffered from cancer and was immediately almost written off. I have come across that, but presumably, in the review of the Bill, we will take that into account.

436.

Mrs Hanna: You talked about your local development plan, regional overview and task force and I feel the role and relationship with the voluntary sector is very important. There is a lot of confusion as to where responsibility and authority lies between the department, boards and trusts. I have difficulty with it and a lot of people would be the same. Is there some way of clearly demonstrating the role?

437.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: That is an important point that I will take on board. I talked about the development of that relationship at local level and the children's services plans. One of the ways that that will be built on and improved is through better co-ordination. All involved at present, voluntary and statutory, have found that very useful and want to build on that. One of the improvements I want to see is clarity and better co-ordination. I will see if it would be useful for voluntary organisations to be in the task force and what their input would be more generally on a regional level. I was specific when I talked about bringing forward proposals about working closely with the boards and trusts and this committee. Clearly the knowledge and expertise of, and the work being carried out by, voluntary organisations would also make them key partners in bringing forward such proposals.

438.

Mrs Hanna: It would be essential to hear from them.

439.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Yes. I will find some way of making it clearer. The different responsibilities of trusts, boards and the department can be confusing for people on the outside. I will find some way of publicly breaking that down into easily accessible information.

440.

Mrs Hanna: There is a perception that they work independently - one does not know what the other is doing.

441.

Mr J Kelly: I need clarification on the question of a Minister for Children, which most groups who attended the committee brought up. In your comment to the Minister, Mr Chairperson, I thought you indicated that the issue of appointing one was not possible, whereas I thought the Minister said that she was still pursuing that with the Executive.

442.

The Chairperson: The Minister would know better than I would. I was saying that if that was not possible, maybe there could be one person acting as overall co-ordinator - a commissioner, say. In the Republic, the Minister for Children seems to work well, as in other countries. Under the present legislation, I am not sure what you can or cannot do in that regard.

443.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: I am aware of the recent developments in Wales, Scotland and the South. In England the Care Standards Act 2000 will establish a national care standards commission, and that in turn will appoint a children's rights director. In Scotland the Minister for Children has referred the issue to the Education, Sports and Culture committee of the Scottish Parliament for consideration. In the South a bill is being introduced to appoint a children's commissioner.

444.

My point is not whether or not I feel such a thing is possible but whether or not I can answer. To date, I have answered within my remit: things that I can say can or cannot happen. I cannot answer for the whole Executive and it would not be right for me to do so. People know my position on what I want to see happen, but I cannot speak for my Executive colleagues.

445.

Mr J Kelly: I want to know is it still a live issue.

446.

Ms McWilliams: This issue of children's services is not within the remit of the implementation body. Have you had the opportunity to liaise on this issue, either in the British-Irish Council or the North/South Ministerial Council? Do you foresee that as an opportunity to actually look at border relationships, east/west and north/south, on this issue? The same issue of shortage of residential and secure places for children is coming up in the Republic. Indeed, judges have referred cases to the Supreme Court, as concerns have become so great recently. Ewan McEwan came and gave evidence. There was a proposal for two secure units for adolescent mental health places. They referred to them as "a unit," but that sounds so objective when you refer to children being in them. He had a concern that we may not be able to substantiate two, or even one with the second on a cross border basis. Have you any comment on that?

447.

The Chairperson: Whilst it is not part of an implementation body, under areas of co-operation, health is certainly very much part of it. You already have that in hospitals - Sligo and Erne, Letterkenny and Altnagelvin, Newry, Daisy Hill and the Louth Hospital - but in this particular question I would have thought, under co-operation in health, that this particular matter could be followed up.

448.

The Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety: There are two separate questions here. It relates to the point already raised about hospitals. The specific areas for co-operation under the North/South Ministerial Council are health promotion, accident and emergency, emergency planning, cancer services and high technology equipment. The issue of children does not specifically fall easily under any of those. However, as with hospital services, the Chairperson is correct in saying that there is ongoing work, outside of the work of the North/South Ministerial Council, under the Co-operation and Working Together Initiative in the border areas. We can work with Government departments to build on the work that the boards are doing under the Co-operation and Working Together Initiative set up in 1992. There would be nothing to stop that happening in this way on this issue.

449.

The Chairperson: You have been very generous with your time and we thank you and your colleagues very much. You have answered all our questions and were up-front on all the points. There is a difficult time ahead and, as I said to you earlier, on the question of the bids we certainly wish you well. We will all use our influence with other Ministers to co-operate with you on that.

21 September 2000

NIPSA is the largest trade union in Northern Ireland and represents around 37,000 employees in the public sector including the Health and Social Services and the voluntary sectors.

As an organisation, NIPSA organises and represents social work and related staff throughout Northern Ireland and has a large number of employees of residential homes amongst its members.

Over the years NIPSA has been active in commenting publicly on matters affecting children in Northern Ireland particularly those who are disadvantaged and who find themselves within the "active" jurisdiction of social services.

Since the introduction of the Children Order (1995) Northern Ireland in November 1996 NIPSA has constantly raised the issue of the lack of resources to fully implement the provisions of this Order. We have convened a number of conferences at which social work practitioners have discussed the crisis in childcare. It is the clear view of NIPSA that a crisis of significant proportions does exist in Childcare Services.

The lack of adequate resources available for Children's Services has in fact led to a number of industrial disputes in recent times. These disputes were not concerned with additional remuneration for workers but rather centred on the inadequacy of resources to allow staff on the ground to deliver the proper services. Whilst the pressures and demands upon NIPSA members employed as social workers sparked these industrial disputes, the backcloth entailed a growing level of frustration and concern among professional social workers that services for vulnerable children were being badly neglected due to the lack of adequate financial and staff investment.

NIPSA would congratulate the Committee for its decision to establish this review and recognises that the separation of the various elements of Children's Services represents a useful way to approach any investigation. NIPSA would intend to comment on each of the different categories as the opportunities arise.

It is NIPSA's strong view, nonetheless, that the provision of Children's Services need to be seen in a holistic manner with each element or category being inextricably bound to other provisions. For example, the effectiveness of Family Support, Community and Fostering Services are vital to ensuring that the residential provision is kept to a minimum. However, we would reiterate the comment in the report "Children Matter" that the residential provision should not be treated as a Cinderella Service but that it should be valued as a valid service and means of meeting the real needs of some children.

In looking at the range of provision within Children's Services a diagrammatic pyramid can be of use. This diagram (Figure 1) shows secure accommodation and residential care at the apex of the pyramid. This indicates that the numbers of children experiencing secure accommodation and residential care are relatively small in comparison to those benefiting from other provisions such as foster care, adoption and family support services. There is, in NIPSA's view a false understanding that the residential provision represents the end of the road and that all other services have failed the children. As mentioned in paragraph 7 above, NIPSA takes the view that residential care can represent the option that provides for the best interests of some vulnerable children. This reinforces our view that adequate and high quality provision must be available and that the required investment must be secured as a matter of urgency.

9. NIPSA would also strongly make the point that the inadequacy of investment in other services, further towards the base of the pyramid, results inevitably in a greater number of children "queuing" for places in residential care. The real failures in this scenario are not the children. The can be more truly described as the victims of the system which does not provide the support services at the earlier stages in the process.

10. Public care for any section of the community should be provided on a high quality basis. If any group within society is entitled to special treatment it should be children. There should be no place in the system for care on the cheap. Quality services capable of catering for those that require the service should be available. In respect of residential care for children this does not exist at present.

11. The report "Children Matter" stands as sufficient testament to the inadequacies of the system. Commissioned in June 1997 by the Health and Social Services Committee of the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) this report makes a number of recommendations, many of which have not been implemented due to lack of investment by the Government.

12. Whilst "Children Matter" represented a realistic way forward, NIPSA is of the view that it does not in itself provide for a complete solution to the problem.

13. Over this last number of years, Health and Social Service Boards and Trusts in Northern Ireland have diverted monies away from Children's Services to cover other priorities. This is, in our opinion, not only a misuse of funds but it is also a short term measure which has a greater medium to long term impact on the negative side. It also constitutes, in many respects, a betrayal of the children in our society who find themselves under the social services remit.

14. This is a practice which continues. In a somewhat different form, Foyle Health and Social Services Trust and the Western Health and Social Services Board has taken a decision to utilise its allocation from the previous Minister George Howarth's April 2000 £5 million for Children's Services, to cover deficits and overspends within the Family and Childcare Programme. This has left just £37,000 out of a total allocation of £782,500 for the development of existing services.

15. There has historically been an over reliance on the voluntary residential care sector. With the virtual collapse of this voluntary provision there is even greater pressure on the statutory sector to meet these needs, with the result that the statutory sector does not have the capacity to provide sufficient residential care places.

16. Recently the WHSSB, in response to a query about the use of a private sector Children's Home in Fermanagh, made it clear that it was using this facility because of the shortage of places in the statutory and voluntary sectors. However, it is the responsibility of the WHSSB to ensure that there is adequate provision and the need to utilise the private sector has been necessitated by the statutory sector's failure to invest in adequate residential facilities for children. The contents of the report "Children Matter" confirms the shortage of residential care places.

17. In its discussion with many Health and Social Services Trusts throughout Northern Ireland there is a general acceptance that the funding levels for Children's Services, including the shortage of residential places (not to mention quality places) are so inadequate that it represents a crisis. While Trusts are struggling to cope with demands the focus of any solution is recognised as arising from significant investment. Like it or not, the reality is that residential care is a Cinderella service starved of adequate funding.

18. NIPSA is loathe to sensationalise the difficulties but individual stories range from some children sleeping on floors to others engaged in regular prostitution. Away from the headlines this is the reality for some children. The cause of the difficulties must be attributed to the current underfunded and undervalued system. The horror stories and nightmare experiences for some children will continue unless top priority in funding terms is given to Children's Services and residential care in particular.

19. A list of current problems include, among other things:

(a) children abusing other children;

(b) Victorian accommodation with children sleeping on floors;

(c) an increase in disturbed children;

(d) inadequate facilities for children with disabilities, including mental illness;

(e) regular assaults on staff.

20. The primary reason for providing residential care places is to protect children. Unfortunately the reality is that the same children can be exposed to further risk as a result of pressure to accept inappropriate admissions.

21. NIPSA members in Social Services have played a key role in highlighting these issues. We argue that a drip feed approach to the problem will not work. In any event, such an approach to the care of vulnerable children, particularly those who require residential care, is not acceptable.

22. NIPSA understands that Trusts within the 4 Boards will be making a detailed submission, perhaps on a collective basis, to the enquiry and we would expect that their resources will enable them to present relevant statistics by way of update to "Children Matter". We would also anticipate that the statutory bodies will repeat what they have stated to NIPSA in the last number of years ie that substantial investment is required in residential care and that without such investment the crisis in residential care will not only continue but get worse.

23. There is also a need in order to prevent delays in moving forward to significantly increase the resources to the Registration and Inspection process.

24. As a final comment, NIPSA notes that there is a distinct paucity of research and analysis into why children are presented for admission to residential care. Some serious research on this issue needs to be commissioned by the Department.

25. In the final analysis the real issue to be addressed in not bricks and mortar or even staffing resources. These are purely a means to an end. The end must surely be the upholding of the fundamental rights of children; rights of children that are currently being denied.

26. In conclusion, NIPSA would wish to elaborate on the content of this submission during our oral submission to the Committee on 11 October 2000.

Dr Hendron (Chairperson)
Mr Gallagher (Deputy Chairperson)
Ms Armitage
Mr Berry
Rev Robert Coulter
Ms Hanna
Mr McFarland
Ms M McWilliams
Ms Ramsey

Mr B Campfield )
Mr J Gillespie ) Northern Ireland
Miss E Webster ) Public Service Alliance

450.

The Chairperson:I welcome members of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) to this meeting and apologise for keeping you waiting. We received your documentation and it has been very helpful. I understand that you are not all from NIPSA headquarters. When you are speaking please identify your particular role.

451.

Mr Campfield: I am from NIPSA headquarters, my colleagues are branch activists and one is an executive member. They are social workers and practitioners in the field of childcare. Mr Gillespie works in the area of residential care and Miss Webster is an assistant principal social worker in the Foyle Trust. My comments will be of a general nature and I will then hand over to my colleagues, who have more expertise in the area in question.

452.

I would like to thank the Committee for receiving our delegation and allowing us to give an oral presentation. We supplied you with a brief paper on the issue. I appreciate that the Committee is looking at separate aspects of children's services, and this particular review is about residential and secure accommodation. We made the point in our submission that our organisation's viewpoint is that the question of children's services is looked at in a holistic way. In certain circumstances you can compartmentalise them, but it is important to look at the overall situation.

453.

Page 2 provides a diagram showing our views. At the base of the pyramid, or triangle, are the issues of prevention, community and family support. It is essential that these aspects of children's services and social work are heavily resourced. If problems are not dealt with at an early stage there will be more problems higher up the pyramid. The further up the pyramid you go, the more expensive resources become. Failure to invest in prevention, community and family support is a false economy and results in the Trusts and Boards being forced to concentrate on more expensive options.

454.

There is also a moral obligation on society, and on those in authority, to ensure that children - generally those from disadvantaged backgrounds - are given proper support and guidance at the earliest opportunity. That is better than trying to deal with these problems "after the horse has bolted". Therefore, while we appreciate you are considering residential and secure accommodation, we think that these problems have to be regarded as part of a whole.

455.

My two colleagues will go in to a bit more detail of some of the difficulties, and will give examples from their own perspective. Obviously, these views represent the vast majority of social workers and other social work staff in Northern Ireland. Our members have been high- lighting the issue of underfunding since the introduction of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and we have had a number of conferences on that issue. There was a major dispute in north and west Belfast relating to staffing resources, and there is a dispute underway in Foyle. I have written to the Foyle Trust giving them notice of industrial action, which is due to commence next week.

456.

These are very important issues for staff and children. In conclusion, we are a trade union and we have a primary responsibility to represent the interests of our members. The issue of resourcing is only a means to an end, it is not the end itself. We accept this and we have an equal concern that children who find themselves within the remit of social services have their rights upheld and have the proper resources allocated

457.

I will hand you over to my colleague, John Gillespie.

458.

Mr Gillespie: I am currently employed by the Sperrin Lakeland Trust, in the Western Health and Social Services Board area. I am a senior social worker and a team leader in a residential assessment unit called Coneywarren House. This is a 16-bed unit. This very fact is an issue that you will have come across in papers from Social Services Inspectorate (SSI), and possibly from the Trust's own perspective. The view is that large residential units do not work, and that has been very much our experience. There are many children with very diverse needs, who are all put together in facilities such as Coneywarren. Unfortunately, as professionals we are struggling to meet the needs of all of these young people. The situation is two-fold. One group of young people have very specialist needs for social, social/environmental, and economic reasons. Some have also suffered abuse. There are many reasons why their lives are very disruptive and disturbed, and they need special care. There are other young people who require the residential facility, but who do not have the same difficulties as the first group. However, their lives are being disrupted, simply because of the absolute needs of the other group. I am sure that the SSI has pointed out the need for more specialist residential units in all Board areas - not just specific units in a specialist area in one particular region.

459.

Secure accommodation is a short-term solution if you are trying to control and set boundaries for certain young people with very specialist needs. The therapeutic aspect of secure accommodation should also be looked at. Young people with very specifically disturbed needs require prolonged specialised help.

460.

These children might have suffered years of abuse and neglect, and when they come to us at the age of 13, 14, or 15 we cannot be expected to undo that damage in three months. It takes a very long time to give them the help they need. That is a major shortcoming of secure accommodation. These very needy children have to wait a very long time to get a place in secure accommodation.

461.

In the meantime they stay in open residential units, where they cause major management difficulties. We understand why they cause these difficulties and we try to help them as much as we can. Nevertheless, they create all sorts of problems - drugs are very, very prevalent, for example, especially the use of illicit drugs. In other homes, inappropriate sexual activity, including prostitution, is a problem. These young people will be exceptionally vulnerable. They might have been taken advantage of and exploited by other people or by their peers, and, indeed, by more sinister individuals as well.

462.

We struggle with these issues on a daily basis when dealing with the young people in our care. One of the main factors is assessment: the question of why young people go into residential care. Social workers try to assess the needs of the young people who come to their attention. We have to look at resources, the impact of the new legislation, the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 and the amount of work it creates in assessments and in paper work. We have to look at the care orders that social workers are going to take and at the lengthy court processes that have to be gone through.

463.

This means that much of the necessary assessment is not carried out. Unfortunately, that creates many emergencies in which children, co-ordinators, or social workers are suddenly faced with the situation of a child no longer being able to remain at home. Where do we place him or her?

464.

Foster homes are not really appropriate, although we might very much wish them to be. Foster homes generally do not accept young adults or teenagers; it is very very difficult to place teenagers in a foster home. Invariably they end up going to a residential home.

465.

Because of the lack of resources and the variation in types of residential facilities, all these young people are placed together, causing all sorts of difficulties in their care.

466.

I am sure that you are aware from SSI reports and from the Board's own submissions that there has been a huge reduction in the number of residential places in recent years. All this compounds our present difficulties. It increases pressure on staff who are trying to deal with an already difficult - almost impossible - situation. As a manager, I try to help people who want to do their job while dealing with high levels of stress. Often, they also have to do their jobs while coping with gaps in staffing because of colleagues being off on stress leave, or because of assaults, which, sadly, are all too common in residential care.

467.

Apart from assaults on others, young people can damage themselves through inappropriate sexual activity, drugs and alcohol. A private home in the Western Board area has opened up. On the face of it, it would seem to provide additional residential places as it is a specified specialist unit. Unfortunately, the unit screens young people and those who are most in need are the ones that it would refuse. So we return to the scenario where these youths end up back in statutory homes.

468.

The Children (Northern Ireland) Order legislation stipulates that we have to work within a very specific statement of purpose and function. However, that is impossible and we constantly work outside it. Of all the young people that I am responsible for, there is not one of them, either in terms of the length of time in the assessment unit or in type or characteristic that matches those the young people we are supposed to care for. We should not be taking in young people who have long criminal records, or quite a lengthy court history, yet we do. This is just in our Trust area and I do not believe that it is in as bad a state as some of the other areas - Foyle, Belfast, Newry and Down. I believe that all these areas are suffering the same sorts of difficult and prevalent problems.

469.

The final point is in relation to the lack of resources for aftercare. The care of these young people, after they gone through initial assessments and then residential care, stops once they become 16 or 17 years old. We regularly try to get young people to partake in psychiatric and psychological assessments but most of them refuse to co-operate. Without co-operation the service cannot be provided and they are simply left to their own devices. Basically that means we cannot provide them with a good level of care. Once they move into the aftercare arena, there are very few resources to support them. Consequently, the vicious circle continues. These young people - and I am sure it is statistically proven - invariably end up in the courts again, and possibly in jail. It is a nightmare scenario. What we are trying to do, apart from developing within our limited resources, is improve aftercare services. I know that the Foyle area is certainly leading the way in aftercare. We would all aspire to this, but cannot do so because of resource implications. It is something that really needs to be looked at. That completes my oral submission providing a view of some of the difficulties we experience.

470.

Miss Webster: I would like to thank the Committee for giving us this opportunity to make an oral submission on the subject of residential care and care accommodation. I have been working in social services for 24 years and for most of that time I have been in the area of family and childcare. I am the quality development manager for children's services in Foyle Trust. The Committee will have already received the joint submission from Foyle and Sperrin Lakeland Trusts outlining our views as well as a covering letter, dated 14 September, from the Foyle Trust chief executive Elaine Way. There is nothing in the submissions that we, as a union, would disagree with - especially the need to develop residential childcare and the difficulties with current arrangements for secure accommodation.

471.

The conclusion of that submission was that 'Children Matter' and its recommendations ought to be implemented urgently. Children Matter was published in 1998 as a result of a deepening crisis in residential care. The SSI urgently conducted a review that resulted in those recommendations. And now, two years and six months later, there remains little investment to fulfil the recommendations of that important document. As a union, NIPSA would agree with the recommendations that concluded that important review of children's services.

472.

With regard to residential care, the 27-bedded unit of Harberton House in Derry would be the largest single unit on one site in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately the Board will only fund Foyle Trust for a 20-bedded unit.

473.

Occasionally, the unit has accommodated around 32 to 33 children, resulting in some sleeping on mattresses on the floors of conference rooms. There was an attempt to try and divide the site up into four separate, distinct units - an assessment unit, a short-to-medium stay unit, a longer term unit, and a unit for the preparation of independent living. However, it is very hard dividing one building into four functional, separate units.

474.

Other examples would be Chapel Road, a new eight-bed children's home, and Racecourse Road, a nine-bed unit opened in March this year. These two new children's homes replaced Nazareth House, a unit with 18 places. As a result, we now have 17 places as a replacement because of the decision made by the Sisters of Nazareth House to pull out of voluntary residential childcare. Any new resources open to the Trust had to be used to maintain the status quo. We have been unable to develop one single extra residential childcare place with any of the new resources that have come our way.

475.

In terms of secure accommodation, we, at any one time, have upwards of five or six children/young people in the Foyle Trust area alone. They will have been assessed as in need of secure accommodation, despite only eight places existing in the whole of Northern Ireland. The criteria for a child to be deemed in need of secure accommodation is very strict. The child needs to be at serious risk of significant harm to themselves or others. They must have a very dangerous pattern of frequent absconding, so as to warrant that assessed need of a place. Therefore, you have six young people in Foyle Trust area alone who have, on several occasions, been waiting for a place for up to six months.

476.

The statutory requirement to assess a young person is a very thorough and stringent process, whereupon the agreement for that child to receive a secure accommodation place must come from the Director of Social Care - the top of the organisation.

477.

Yet, a young person can sit for six months whilst deemed to be at serious risk to themselves and others, and to their own health and wellbeing. Those attempting to meet the needs of these troubled young people can only provide open residential units without locked doors and with no power to stop the young person leaving, if that is their wish. As previously mentioned, you cannot separate the needs of the residential childcare service for fostering and all the prevention resources and family support, or lack of it, out on the ground. Field social workers must manage these young people, who are at serious risk, in the community. There are no places in residential care. If one should present itself, you could be putting serious pressure on the staff and their resources. You may be placing a very troubled, dangerous 15-16 year old into an open children's home where there are seven and eight year olds, who cannot avail of a fostering place.

478.

In Foyle Trust, we currently have two children with learning disabilities who are in large open children's homes because foster placement is not available. For a child with a learning disability you need a Down's syndrome type of facility. That illustrates the lack of resources we are struggling with on the ground, both in fieldwork and in residential care.

479.

The Minister, George Howarth, made an announcement in April in terms of new funding. He said that the additional allocation of £5 million for children services in Northern Ireland was being made available to support the provision of more residential places, provide further support for the implementation of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order, develop fostering services and support the development of community paediatric nursing. Of that extra £5 million, £1.07 million was for the Western Board area.

480.

Our then general manager Tom Frawley, who is now the new Ombudsman, said at a Western Health and Social Services Board meeting on 25 May that Mr Howarth, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, had made it clear that these moneys should not be dissipated on Trust deficits.

481.

Further on in that meeting Mr Hughes who is the chairperson of our Western Health and Social Services Council said that the council had been most concerned about the recovery plan proposed by the Sperrin Lakeland Trust and the serious consequences for patients in the Trust's area. He said he agreed with the Minister's instruction that additional resources should not be used to address Trust deficits.

482.

I have to report to the Committee that that is precisely what Foyle Trust did. Of the new allocation £782,500 was allocated to Foyle Trust - over three quarters of a million pounds - and unfortunately only £37,000 of that was used for new service development. Also, £392,000 was used for a shortfall in the funding of residential places. In other words, for seven places in the 27-bedded unit in Harberton House, which is funded by the board only for 20 places, and for an extra place in the new children's facility, which only replaces one in Nazareth House. A further £270,000 was used to pay for foster places, but only to pay for foster places where children were located.

483.

So this was not about new recruitment or expanding the fostering services. The statutory duty was being fulfilled. Young people were actually in residential and foster places that were not funded. So all of our new service development money went to cover Trust deficits. I understand the argument that has come subsequently from the centre about the Trust's legal duty to balance the books, but those deficits had been there year after year. Since 1992, Harberton House has been funded on a 20-bed basis and it never had less than 27 young people in it.

484.

So that was what the Foyle Trust did - and the Western Health and Social Services Board agreed with its proposal on how to spend the money. In our opinion, that new money was wasted. We, as a staff group, felt that the books were balanced at our expense and certainly at the expense of the development of children's services in the Foyle Trust area. That is our current situation.

485.

I have some projected figures for the 2000-2001 financial year. For the current financial year there are more estimated shortfalls in residential care, and that incorporates the three children's homes I have spoken about in the Foyle area: Chapel Road, Racecourse Road and Harberton House. It is predicted that by the end of this financial year there will be a shortfall of £388,390. In respect of fostering, the estimated shortfall in this financial year is £260,000.

486.

From the Trust's own financial projections you can see that we are going to be almost £700,000 in debt again this financial year. So, if any more new moneys come onboard, are we to anticipate that they will again be swallowed up by deficits and that we will still get no service development in terms of our needs in residential care and in terms of the development of secure accommodation in our Trust area?

487.

I have figures from the Registration and Inspection Unit to show you what it is like on the ground for residential staff at the moment. This is the Registration and Inspection Unit of the Western Health and Social Services Board area. It caters for, as I have just described, Foyle Trust, which has 44 residential places, and Sperrin Lakeland, which has 16. The area has 64 residential places. In the year 1998/99, 52 young people absconded for less than 24 hours, 18 absconded for more than 24 hours - and a couple of those could be upwards of a couple of weeks. That causes worry and stress to families and carers alike. There were nine serious overdoses and 25 assaults by young people on staff. I would have to caution that these are recorded when they are serious. There are verbal assaults and minor scuffles on a day-to-day basis. There were 24 self-inflicted injuries by a young person in residential care; 27 assaults or injuries by one young person in residential care on another; 14 incidents of serious consumption of alcohol and other substances, some of which required hospitalisation; and nine serious incidents of material damage to property. That is just a snapshot of one year of what it is like in residential care.

488.

I have to mention Brindley House, the new private children's home which opened earlier this year and has been full to capacity since its doors opened. We had written, as a matter of principle and concern from NIPSA's point of view, to Mr Frawley, our general manager of the Board at the time, expressing concern that the Board had not seen fit to fund properly developed residential childcare places retained within the statutory sector. Yet, here is a private children's home, which opened up with eight places and was full to overflowing the day it opened. As Mr Gillespie pointed out, the home screens young people, so the most difficult cases in need of specialist services cannot gain access. I do out of hours duty, and a couple of Mondays ago, I got a call from a residential worker in Brindley House describing concern about two young people. One was from Cork and the other from Dundalk. They are the young people who use quite a few of the places in Brindley House.

489.

When we expressed our concern to the general manager of the Board about the development of private residential care in our board area, he pointed out that the Board had not commissioned the children's home. However, our Registration and Inspection Unit had to spend many staff hours approving that private residential home, and that uses up our money. Secondly, he acknowledged that we had no choice but to use Brindley House, because there is a real shortage of residential childcare places in the Board area. We believe the Board cannot have it both ways. Brindley House's first asking price was £2,100 per week, per child. The Boards negotiated with Brindley House and got that figure battened down to £1,600 per week, per child, which is the current going rate. That is for basic care. That is really for -

490.

The Chairperson: Sorry. What was that figure?

491.

Miss Webster: £1,600 is the agreed price per week per young person.

492.

Ms McWilliams: What was the original figure?

493.

Miss Webster: It was £2,100 - £1,600 per week is for basic care. If we want psychological input, psychotherapy input, family therapy, psychological assessment; it all costs more.

494.

Ms Ramsey: Do you know how much it costs for the residentials?

495.

Mr Campfield: Around £1,100.

496.

Miss Webster: Disability is another area our paper alluded to, and I want to mention that before I finish. Young people with disabilities, either learning, or physical and sensory impairment, have no specialist residential places in the Western Health and Social Services Board area. Indeed, there are very little in Northern Ireland at all. In fact, services for young people with a disability are not there in the way that they ought to be according to the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. It says "child first, disabled second". I am afraid that in our Foyle Trust area, and in most other areas, there are no specialist social work services. Children with disabilities are on social workers' case loads with adults. They are followed in adult services. There is certainly no residential facility for physical or sensory impaired young people in our area. There is a respite unit for learning disability, but even that is not properly resourced.

497.

There are 250 young learning disability people in the Foyle Trust area, and there is no dedicated childcare social worker for those young people who are on adult caseloads. But 65 of those young learning- disability children on average avail of respite residential care on a yearly basis, and they have to be reviewed at least every six months. So there are 130 reviews of arrangements for these young people, and no extra resources to facilitate that kind of work those young people deserve.

498.

A new Bill was announced on 11 September by the Deputy First Minister. This Carers and Disabled Children Bill will provide legislation to facilitate Trusts in the provision of carer assessments, and will extend to the carer the choice in the sourcing of care provision following assessment.

499.

The Chairperson: We are aware of that statement by the Deputy First Minister. I want to allow time for my colleagues to ask questions.

500.

Miss Webster: This is more statutory legislation. Without resources, there is no way that social services will be able to fulfil their statutory functions. We are not fulfilling our statutory functions at the moment. We have made that quite clear and, unfortunately, it has resulted in Foyle Trust NIPSA social work staff embarking on a programme of industrial action commencing next Wednesday 18 ^{October, and we regret} that. We, as professionals, aspire to the quality standards as set out by the SSI and as set out in The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. We are not able to fulfil our professional duty. Staff morale is low. I have never known such a turnover of staff in my 24 years of service. So we need the adequate funding to do the job properly.

501.

The Chairperson: Thank you very much. I am very grateful to all of you. I will open the meeting for questions from my colleagues.

502.

Rev Robert Coulter: Thank you for the very graphic details you have given us today. To enable us to define our objectives - and we share your concerns -please outline your preferred model of residential care provision. Can you detail how this will optimise care for the children? You may want to give us a paper on it, in order to be specific. However, we would like to hear today some idea of what your preferred model for residential care provision is.

503.

Mr Gillespie: 'Children Matter' - the document from the SSI - really points out which preferred model of care will be best for residential care. That document specifies smaller units, units with highly specialised tasks, and differentiated units, such as the open units which currently exist, and units for the children with very specific needs.

504.

Ideally there should be small units, with no more than six bedrooms. These units should be highly staffed, and contain direct input services, such as psychology, psychiatry, support services and family therapies. Those are also pointed out in 'Children Matter'.

505.

Needs may change slightly from area to area, but in each main Trust area, there should really be a variety of residential facilities. As far back as the 1992-97 regional strategy, the Department pointed out the need for smaller residential units geared to specialist tasks, in order to clearly identify need.

506.

Ms McWilliams: We had concerns before we started this inquiry. They are being heightened, in terms of how we are going to see our way to putting in place some of the proposals you are making to us. It is clear that you have an emergency situation. I do not think that social workers would ever take industrial dispute lightly. It seems to me that you have got to the stage where the thing has cracked all around you.

507.

'Children Matter' is something we have addressed and it is currently being reviewed. One submission from 'the Voice of Young People in Care' raised something we had not looked at before. It says that the Criminal Justice Review creates dual demands on residential care services with its recommendation that 10-to 13-year-olds should not enter a custodial setting at all but they should be looked after by social services. This raises a major issue about creating additional residential provision. Looking after young offenders and locating such provision in the integrated child welfare service model has not been covered in 'Children Matter'.

508.

The issue of young offenders, and 10-to 13-year- olds, seems to be another problem. You talked earlier about older offenders but, from what I have seen and heard, it seems to be happening at a younger age. Also, what is happening to the young people who are absconding? You have only given us the figures for Foyle Health & Social Services Trust but I am sure they must be absconding all over.

509.

Miss Webster: They meet up with other absconders.

510.

Ms McWilliams: Fifty two abscond for less than 24 hours and a smaller number abscond for over 24 hours. Are they being picked up, brought back and are absconding again? This is an important issue. You are dealing with social services today. Are these children being educated? If so, who is educating them? Who is picking this up on the juvenile justice side because that relates to a different part of the budget and we do not seem to be integrating those together?

511.

Miss Webster: There used to be St Patrick's Training School, Rathgael, and St Joseph's in Middletown. They have closed but children were able to move into the care side of those training schools before the court system put them into the juvenile side. There was education on site, and that was always a key issue with those facilities. The regional care centres are now known as Glenmona, which was the old St Patrick's on the Glen Road, and Lakewood, which was the old Rathgael. St Joseph's in Middletown which is another voluntary sector school, has withdrawn from residential children's services.

512.

Some young people from the Foyle Trust were in St Joseph's and the irony of it is that we had to put them into Brindley House. We did not have anywhere else to put them. Those regional centres are not secure accommodation but they provide intensive support and they have education on site. In Foyle we need that kind of intensive support unit developed locally working in partnership with parents and children, and having a local facility. The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 says that we should maintain children in or as near to their communities as we possibly can - not 75 or 80 miles away in Rathgael.

513.

You need special permission from the Department and the SSI to have an under 13 year old in secure accommodation. But some of these are getting in trouble with the law. Therefore we need intensive support units locally to cater for the young children who are not going to be held in any custodial sense. That is a new development as a result of new legislation that we have no facility for. So we want the differentiated units, as have already been described, for the older adolescent group of 10- to 13-year-olds. We also need specialist facilities for younger people with mental health problems. There are 11- and 12-year-old children in adult mental health wards in psychiatric hospitals.

514.

Ms McWilliams: Are the kids who abscond brought back to the home that evening, and how many times are they permitted to abscond before they are taken to either Lakewood or Glenmona?

515.

Mr Gillespie: It depends from young person to young person. Typically, if a young person has a history of absconding, they are reported to the police as missing straight away. This is a matter of procedure. Recovering young people is a police matter. The police also have a difficulty here because technically they cannot enter premises where we suspect the young person to be. Legislation stops the police from going in and bringing a person out. Young people aged 14 or 15 often want to stay and the effects of a court order may not affect them. So, often we depend on the co-operation of the young person and that creates a difficulty in its own right.

516.

We have had situations in which the young person, after being recovered by the police, has gone in through the front door and out the back door. We also have situations in which staff endeavour to encourage the young people. In most cases, all that we have to work with in residential care is the relationship that we have with the young person and the power to negotiate with them. If the young person does not want to listen then it does not work. Consequently, they are the people who are at most risk, most need and who most often abscond.

517.

Through my experience of care I remember a young person who was missing for 69 days. Other young people were missing for a week and some for two days. Schedule 1 offenders - those involved in illegal drugs among other things - are clearly identified as being in need of secure accommodation. Due to the lack of places they quite often have to wait for months before a place becomes available. Even at that, it is a matter of priority as to which child is in most need of a place even though there might be 10 children in dire need.

518.

Miss Webster: We have to prioritise on a daily basis.

519.

Mr Gillespie: I am aware that secure accommodation has tried to expand. However, one of the other problems is that we cannot get the staff required for such a unit. It has been reported that they can merely keep pace with the number of staff currently leaving secure accommodation due to the amount of disruption and stress they have to cope with. It is a very grave situation.

520.

Mr Berry: In your submission you mentioned Victorian standards of accommodation, with children sleeping on floors. Has there been any progress on that or is it still a major problem in your area?

521.

What would be the most effective preventative steps towards reducing the numbers of children having to go into residential care - especially with regard to family support? What steps do you recommend?

522.

I am sure that the assaults on staff you mentioned are a growing problem. Are staff taking time off and staying off for a long period due to these assaults, or are they coming in the following day? What is the trend? If they do stay off for a long time after such an attack, does that lead to a staff shortage?

523.

Mr Gillespie: In relation to Victorian accommodation certain homes are very old, but there is also new accommodation. As Miss Webster pointed out, a new modern, purpose built home has opened in Racecourse Road. There are situations where the buildings are old and would not meet current registration and inspection requirements for children's homes.

524.

Much of the stock of current residential places is out of date. Occupation of these places is due to the overcrowding of children's homes and the inappropriate placements that managers of residential homes have no control over.

525.

If an out-of-hours social worker is looking for a place for a young person in an emergency situation, and there is no alternative placement, then that young person will be placed in residential care irrespective of whether or not a bed is available. Consequently, situations arise when no bed is available and young people have to sleep on floors.

526.

Ms Ramsey: Two weeks ago I visited the home on Somerton Road. One of the kids showed me into one of the rooms; it was a two-bedded room and there was a mattress on the floor. It struck me that the Trust -

527.

The Chairperson: And they knew you were coming.

528.

Miss Webster: The new development in the Foyle Trust is on Racecourse Road. It is nine-bedded, and 10 young people are resident. Instead of young people having to sleep on the mattress in the meeting room, the night staff have been shifted out of their bedroom and they are sleeping on the floor. That is the position today, but there have been several occasions in the past where young people have slept on the floors of various children's homes throughout Northern Ireland.

529.

During the Christmas period last year a member of staff in one of the children's homes was assaulted by a young person and ended up with a broken limb, and in one of the facilities in south and east Belfast last year a member of staff was seriously injured when a fire extinguisher was thrown at him. Assaults on staff are not uncommon and happen frequently; in fact I believe there is considerable under-reporting of violent incidents of assault on staff because of their commitment and loyalty and their unwillingness to involve the RUC.

530.

The support structures needed are those at the bottom of the pyramid referred to earlier. The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 was anticipated with great enthusiasm by practitioners because it attempted to redress the balance between protection, where children and young people are taken into care because parents cannot cope, and the provision of prevention and support mechanisms to try to stop children and young people from reaching child protection registration or from going into care. One cannot do that without money.

531.

Article 18 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 is supposed to provide the wherewithal for family support, prevention, family centres, therapeutic input, parenting skills, respite facilities and all such issues. Yet article 18 has not substantially changed, insofar as the finance that it attracts, in comparison with the section 164 of the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968, which intended to keep children out of care. Resources have not increased at all. One cannot develop prevention and family support on a no resource basis.

532.

There are no family centres in Limavady and on the Waterside area of Derry. From an equality of opportunity point of view, we are expecting families living in the Irish Street or Tullyalley areas of the Waterside, which are strongly loyalist, to attend the Creggan family centre. That is an unrealistic expectation from our clients, and so there are large gaps in basic prevention services.

533.

We do not have a dedicated family therapy resource within our programme of care. We can avail of the child and adolescent psychiatric service, but this is in the mental health programme and is not in family and childcare. There is a waiting list of up to one year. We must develop all those preventative measures so that we can look forward to the day when we can reduce residential childcare places.

534.

The Chairperson: Absolutely.

535.

Mr Berry: Thank you very much for your answers. You mentioned St Joseph's Adolescent Centre in Middletown in your report. I have visited that home myself, and it was tremendous to see how well young people to whom I spoke were coming on and what they were doing in their projects. Sadly, they left when it closed. Do you have any information on how those young people ended up? Was the confidence they built up and the hard work put in by the staff destroyed? Did their former attitudes return?

536.

Miss Webster: The Committee is in public session and confidentiality makes your question difficult to answer. It is safe to say that St Joseph's did not give very much notice to allow planning of replacement accommodation for these young people. It closed without any real chance of preparing them for moving to other facilities. They were accommodated, but not in places they wished.

537.

Ms Hanna: Good afternoon. Thank you very much for your presentations, which very graphically illustrated the endless nature of the problems. I can understand how social workers can reach the end of their tether. I do not know how one can attract social workers into the service, especially when it is so badly resourced. Even the money allocated is not ring-fenced. That happens very much in primary care in the community and in many other areas. Mr Berry's point, when he said that, if we are to look at the issue seriously, we must ensure we can address problems right at the beginning through family support in the community, was very important. How do you attract staff when conditions are so bad? Is this a growing problem? Are increasing numbers of young people having problems and ending up needing residential care? I appreciate that some of the difficulties stem from the fact that problems are not addressed before they reach that stage. It seems to be a growing problem.

538.

Mr Gillespie: It certainly is a growing problem. Perhaps societal changes, as much as anything else, are to blame. Quite apart from the environmental and social difficulties, young people themselves have higher expectations. Many young people in normal circumstances have difficulties as teenagers, but those who go through troubled times in their younger years are invariably the ones we get. Early intervention is obviously extremely important.

539.

There is a growing population of young people who are indeed becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Although it is hard to quantify, statistics produced either by Boards or research - from which I cannot quote directly - will show a growing trend for the parents of young people to have difficulties managing them at home. More important than the kind of trouble and bother they get into is the question of why they do so. Invariably, family breakdown, poor family dynamics and dysfunctional families are the major causes, something research will always confirm. Why one has particular pockets in certain areas remains unclear, and all these factors and variables must come together to point out exactly why.

540.

Miss Webster: There has been a real reduction in the number of residential childcare places since the early 1990s. Their number has practically been halved, and the statistics are in 'Children Matter'. We believe there is an increasing trend of older, more difficult adolescents.

541.

Ms Hanna: The really challenging ones.

542.

Miss Webster: Indeed, and this might not have been the case in the past. Our submission points out the need for research to find out why children enter care at the point of admission. What are the factors, and what could be ploughed into the community?

543.

The Chairperson: The Committee Clerk has pointed out that the number of places has halved since 1986.

544.

Miss Webster: That was my own feeling. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the new human rights legislation would say that children and young people have a right to family life. If we cannot provide the prevention, the support and resources to maintain children in their own birth family, then the very least that we should provide is a good quality foster family. The Western Health and Social Services Board currently funds Foyle Trust for 180 foster placements. We provide 250 foster placements, so 70 foster placements are not funded by the Board - hence the overspend. We call it an underfund.

545.

Our fostering social workers have new duties that require them, quite rightly, to reassess and re-approve foster parents and foster families on an annual basis. That is proper to ensure that good standard foster care is available, but they are not even meeting those annual statutory requirements, let alone having space to recruit and train new foster carers. Indeed, our foster carers are kicking up a fuss that they are not getting training and support.

546.

Ms Hanna: That is a very important point. We have not enough foster parents, and the intervention is not always at the right time.

547.

Miss Webster: Foster placements then break down.

548.

Mr McFarland: Thank you again for your presentation. First, I am slightly disturbed about the issue of sleeping on the floor. A camp bed can be bought for about £5 and a sleeping bag for not much more. Rather than this concept of dossing on the floor on an old mattress, why can we not provide a high quality camp bed and a sleeping bag? That would be a comfy bed for most kids.

549.

Secondly, you mentioned children from the Republic, and I appreciate that a private home was being talked about. However, how many children from outside Northern Ireland are currently being looked after in our care system, and what are the compensating financial arrangements, if any? Presumably any money allocated is, in theory, for residents.

550.

Thirdly, given that we are in a crisis and that there are severe financial constraints, what practical measures, short of serious funding being provided, do you think can be taken to alleviate the system? Can anything be reorganised or sorted out to ease matters pending the arrival of enormous funds to sort things out?

551.

Mr Gillespie: On the camp bed situation, certain units may not have beds or camp beds in stock because they do not cater for additional numbers. The SSI sets certain standards that would have to be met. We are talking about emergency situations, and some units may have camp beds. We had them in our facility.

552.

Ms Ramsey: That does not make it right.

553.

Mr Gillespie: Absolutely.

554.

Mr McFarland: I appreciate that we are dealing with emergency situations. However, we were given an impression of the place being covered with poor children having some ragged mattress on the floor. I was concerned, given that you are aware that there is not the provision that you require. Surely it is possible in this day and age to produce reasonable accommodation, albeit cramped and over your limit, to make children's lifestyles comfortable.

555.

Miss Webster: Generally that is what happens.

556.

Mr McFarland: I was just trying to confirm that.

557.

Miss Webster: Some units may have camp beds. Some may use mattresses, but it was not implied that they were dirty or diseased. Every child has a right to his or her own space. They make it their own with posters - but not in a meeting room or conference room. That was the main point that we were trying to make. As to children from the Republic of Ireland, I am not aware that any statutory children's home would provide places to children from outside the jurisdiction, because there is such pressure in accommodating our own population. Brindley House is a private children's home, and I suppose it can, and does, accept children from outside the jurisdiction. That would be unusual in statutory children's homes.

558.

Mr Gillespie: In past years, young children from the travelling community would have had access to beds in residential facilities and in the voluntary sector. That has not been the case in our Trust area for quite some time. It may have involved families in transit between the Republic of Ireland and the North.

559.

Obviously, given the emergency situations being presented to social services at that time, had those children been at significant harm they would have been placed in a statutory home. That scenario could still happen. Technically, situations may arise where people - particularly those in the travelling community - may avail of places.

560.

Miss Webster: If a child in your Trust area is at risk of significant harm then the Trust has a responsibility to act. It does not matter where the young people come from.

561.

Mr Campfield: I would like to comment on the practical measures you are talking about. I am fairly certain that Trusts and managers would have come up with whatever practical measures were possible in order to improve the situation.

562.

There is no escaping the argument that this aspect is severely under-funded and that without a substantial injection of resources in terms of money and staff we will be no nearer a solution. Practical measures are just tinkering around the edges of the matter.

563.

Moving on to the Western Health and Social Services Board area, I have recently been involved with the Armagh and Dungannon Trust. The Director of Social Services there has put up his hands and said that he accepts that staff are under pressure and that there are major difficulties. We have advised that Trust to identify the work they are statutorily required to do - and this is taking us a little away from residential and secure accommodation but it is part of the overall picture - and that which is only of added value. They can then identify which work takes priority. As they have limited resources from the Board and ultimately from Government, their statutory obligations would take priority.

564.

We have said to them that - rather than us taking industrial action - if they want to alleviate the pressure at ground level then, as employers, they should be saying that they cannot deliver services with the resources allocated and that they have no choice but to restrict those services. That is a somewhat different approach that we are taking in Armagh and Dungannon. We would hope that the employer - in this case the statutory body - would identify work, which, while very important, is not statutory. It may well be essential, but if they have not got the funding to do such work they may have to decide what they can do with the funding they have.

565.

There is no escaping the argument and fairly self- evident truth that a substantial injection of investment is needed in children's services.

566.

Mr Gallagher: I would make two points. First, you gave us a breakdown of how the allocation for extra childcare placement of £5 million was spent within the Western Health and Social Services Board area. What was the situation as regards that spending in the other three Board areas? Secondly, I want to find out more about screening, and you used that in relation to a privately run care centre and residential home. What do you mean by screening? Are you talking about selection?

567.

Mr Gillespie: I will answer the second question first. Basically, a referral is made to a particular unit detailing the needs of the young person and what they would need in terms of service. The unit would meet the young person and try to match his needs with what they can provide having regard to the other residents in the unit.

568.

If they are taking on a young person with a high level of disruptive behaviour, they may feel it would not be a good idea to place him with their current residents and may, therefore, not accept him. Basically, they are choosing residents whom they can manage. We cannot do that because of our statutory obligations.

569.

Mr Gallagher: Is it possible that a two-track system will develop where you have to take everybody that they do not want, plus some others? In relation to staffing in that situation, I take it that there is equivalence between the sectors, in that their staff have the same qualifications as the statutory sector, and that they are trained, or accredited, by the Boards. Is the cost of training all the staff borne by health and social services?

570.

Miss Webster: The qualifications are similar, because they are qualified social workers. However, the accrediting body is the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work; it awarded the old certificate of qualification in social work, and now the new diploma in social work and the post-graduate social work award. The Boards have no responsibility for awards or training in the private sector.

571.

Mr Gallagher: Who bears the cost?

572.

Miss Webster: Presumably in-service training is provided by their organisation. I do not know much about them. Although they are well established in Britain, this is their first venture into Northern Ireland. I believe they have applied to open another home in Ballygawley.

573.

Mr Campfield: Some of the staff in private children's homes - we understand that another one has been identified for the Northern Board in Carnlough - will possibly have been trained on secondments paid for by the public purse. The argument is that they are funded by the state before qualifying and moving into the private sector. I imagine that most people who complete the diploma in social work are supported by public bodies. In that sense then, training and education are funded by the Government.

574.

Ms Ramsey: That is similar to doctors and nurses.

575.

Mr Campfield: Yes. As to what other Boards are doing in relation to funding, it is a bit of a mystery in some respects. We have concentrated to a large extent on the Western Health and Social Services Board, because of the individuals present today. Prior to George Howarth's allocation, there was a dispute in the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust. As a result of that dispute, the Trust was at least able to ensure that the majority, if not all, of that allocation was used for the purposes it was intended for. Perhaps there are some areas still on the margins - I know our branch are negotiating resources for family and childcare services. It is ironic that had our colleagues in Foyle been involved in industrial action at that stage, it might have had some influence on the way that the Western Health and Social Services Board and Foyle Trust used most of the money to cover deficits. We are now trying to redress that.

576.

We are dealing with this on a board by board basis, and some have not provided us with details of what they received from the £5 million. I mentioned that we had been in negotiation with Armagh and Dungannon Trust - they could not tell us what their allocation from George Howarth's £5 million was.

577.

The Chairperson: That information should be public.

578.

Miss Webster: I have it here. The Southern Health and Social Services Board's allocation from the £5 million was £1·145 million; the Northern Board received £1·533 million; and the Eastern Board received £2·752 million. I have already given you the figures for the Western Board.

579.

I know from conversations with colleagues in the Northern Board that they are having grave difficulty getting information from their senior management as to where that money has gone, or if it has been spent. It certainly has not been ring-fenced for the development of children's services, because people on the ground would have seen the value of it.

580.

Mr Campfield: That is the issue. We are seeking clarification from the Southern Board, for example, as to what has happened to that money. There is a lot of edginess around the questions we are asking.

581.

The Chairperson: It is most important that we establish that.

582.

Ms Ramsey: I have a number of points, as you are the last people coming in to give oral evidence. Having listened to the submissions over the last weeks, I am more convinced that when children get to the stage of residential care, they are thrown to the wall and forgotten about by the Boards and Trusts. I agree with the point that Miss Webster made earlier, that there is no point in publishing Bills and evidence unless the resources are there to implement them. We are looking at the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, we are looking at 'Children Matter', we are looking at new Bills coming through.

583.

As to the private sector, does the private house you mentioned fall under the remit of the SSI?

584.

Mr Gillespie: It does.

585.

Ms Ramsey: I also want to raise an issue about beds. I do not think it is about buying camp beds, but I can understand Mr McFarland's point. It is about the rights of the child, and that is a bigger issue. My concern is that there is no short-term or long-term specialist help for children in residential care. I believe that there is an added impact: first on children; secondly on staff; and thirdly on the residents of the area. We are all aware of a number of issues. South and East Belfast Trust is one area where residents are in dispute with a home.

586.

Do you feel that if money were put in now, we would save money in the long term? I also believe that if Boards are not telling Trusts where their money is, we are still being reactive instead of proactive. People on the ground cannot think further than six or 12 months ahead. I am also aware of the dispute taking place at the moment in Foyle Health and Social Services Trust. In my view, it is positive in that this Committee has now become aware of it. I agree that people need to be made aware that those in Foyle are not going out on strike for additional money for themselves; they are going out on strike because they are failing, not only in their statutory duty, but in the moral duty, to protect children. That information is not out there. If there is a dispute or industrial action, people automatically think it is for increased pay. I hope you will bring that back. Once again, I would like to thank you for your presentation. A lot of the issues I wanted to cover are in the document that you sent us.

587.

Miss Webster: We must have investment now, and it has to be on a forward planning basis with a strategic view. As I said before, ultimately we would like to see a reduction in residential childcare places, and more resources for the community, for families and for assessment units - all of those facilities that we do not have. Every piece of research on children who have been in care shows that their prospects are exceedingly poor compared to those of the rest of the population. That research is carried out in Ireland, both North and South, in Britain, and internationally.

588.

A disproportionate number of children who have been in the care system end up in the juvenile justice system, in prison, in psychiatric wards, in prostitution and as drug abusers. All the research shows that. The outcome for young people in care is already not good. We need to improve the quality of residential childcare services if we are going to make the prospects favourable for those young people, in terms of their quality of life and their life chances. Ultimately, we want to reduce the need for any young person to become looked-after; to be removed from their family home. There will always be a certain number for whom that is essential for their own protection, but we have to put in the resources for preventative work. We need to provide family support, identify the children in need, assess their need and provide services to meet those needs. We are not doing that at the moment. You are quite right - the last thing that social work staff want to do is withdraw services from vulnerable children and families. We are doing it ultimately to enhance the quality of service we can provide to them. It is not for our terms and conditions of employment.

589.

The turnover of staff is phenomenal. You asked how we recruit. It is with difficulty, these days. The good, experienced childcare social workers are getting out. They are applying for and getting jobs in the NSPCC, Barnardo's, the Guardian ad Litem Agency, anywhere they can get into other programmes of care, for example, for older people, or people with a disability. They are not staying in family and childcare work. It is too hard and stressful. They do not have a private life. They cannot spend quality time with their own families and children, with the result that we have an inordinate number of young graduates, inexperienced childcare social workers, dealing with high-risk cases in the community. It is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. Our dispute is about extra resources and staff.

590.

Ms Armitage: Do you also screen children for residential homes in the private sector to make sure they are being placed with those of their own capabilities and problems? Would you welcome more homes such as Brindley House? Are they an asset or a liability, and is that not taking the money out of residential care and putting it into the private sector? Presumably they are running a business. Is it helpful; I am thinking back to the time when the homes for the aged were privately run? That will not happen overnight, but is it something that could happen? Would you welcome that, or are you not in favour of Brindley House?

591.

Mr Campfield: On the latter point, we are very much of the view, from a trade union perspective, that in relation to most public services statutory bodies have a responsibility to provide support. That is certainly so in relation to the provision of support for vulnerable children. It is not possible to rely on the private sector - in many respects you cannot plan, and in this situation strategic thinking and planning are very important. You cannot rely on entrepreneurs coming up with the provision and then the public sector relying on that. Miss Webster made the point, by way of example, that the Western Board, the organisation with statutory responsibility, claimed it had no choice but to use a private residential home for young children as it did not have sufficient places. The very point was that it is the Western Board's responsibility to commission sufficient places. It is our view that it is the responsibility of the community and the public sector to provide those places because we are more likely to get a proper service and be properly looked after.

592.

Ms Armitage: In view of the fact that there is not enough funding to do that do you not think that places like Brindley House are better than having no provision?

593.

Ms Ramsey: The reason we have this problem of lack of places in residential care is that for years the Department relied on the voluntary sector, which, for a number of reasons, has pulled out.

594.

The Chairperson: There are fewer places.

595.

Mr Campfield: Miss Webster made the point that the Board has negotiated a cost per week per child of £1,600, and, that does not include a whole range of services that children would receive in statutory residential homes. In the long run it is going to cost the public more to rely on the private sector. I would seriously question whether the care of children in those circumstances is really best looked after by the private sector.

596.

Miss Webster: With reference to the question about screening, every young person receives a needs assessment. That establishes why that young person needs looked after and what other specific needs he or she has. While the assessment may conclude that the young person has serious mental health problems and needs a facility with a big psychological or psychotherapy unit to look after him or her, that does not mean that you can access a facility that will provide for that. We do not have the choices about things such as differentiated and specialist units. A children's home has to take a child whether they can meet his or her needs or not, and that is what is causing serious difficulties for the mix of young people in care.

597.

It is intolerable that an eight year-old Down's syndrome child should be in the same children's home as a 15 year-old involved in solvent abuse and prostitution. This is not far removed from reality - it should not be allowed. That same unit cannot meet the specific individual assessed needs of those two different children and yet the services we have at the moment mean that all comers are taken. There is no choice.

598.

The Chairperson: We have had a lot of submissions - oral and written. What you have said is true in terms of resources and training on the ground. Concerning the overall co-ordination of services, there were talks, in the early days before devolution, that there should be a Minister for children - others would suggest a commissioner or ombudsperson for children. Have you any strong feelings in that regard?

599.

Mr Campfield: At our unit conference, a number of years ago, we passed a resolution calling for the appointment of a Minister for children.

600.

The Chairperson: You have been most graphic in your description of the problems out there. We are aware of the problems and you have been an outstanding help to us. As you know, we are producing a report on this important subject. We will be presenting it to the Assembly before Christmas. With all the submissions we have had, a fair bit of work has been done. More work is to be done. Both the document you gave us and your tremendous presentation to us, have been most helpful, so, on behalf of the whole Committee, I thank you sincerely.