884 entries for Government Department

At independence, there were four Reformatories in the Irish Free State and one in Northern Ireland. However by 1927, the number had fallen to two. St Joseph’s Reformatory in Limerick was for girls and was run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The other was St Conleth’s for Boys at Daingean, Offaly, run by the Oblates. During the years 1934-41, Daingean was temporarily closed and the residents transferred back to Glencree, which had been Daingean’s predecessor. In 1974, Daingean closed, to be replaced by Scoil Ard Mhuire in Lusk,39 which was initially run by the Oblates but later transferred to the direct administration of the Department of Education.

With a single exception, there were no general motions on Industrial Schools. Even the reaction to Cussen and Kennedy came not in the form of a formal ministerial statement followed by a debate, but as incrementally expanding replies to Dail questions. The exception was in the Seanad and was a general discussion, lasting five hours, on a motion to take note of the Kennedy Report (though taking place on 10th December 1973, some three years after publication of the Report) proposed by Senators Robinson and West, representing Trinity College, Dublin. This elicited an unusually detailed, unguarded and heartfelt response from John Bruton, the Parliamentary Secretary at the Department of Education.

The same Government decision that allocated to the Minister for Health primary responsibility for childcare also established a Task Force on Child Care Services which submitted its report to the Minister for Health in late 1980. This report exposed a number of difficulties that had emerged in relation to implementing desired changes. These included the difficulty of devising new legislation, despite an acknowledgement that it was required and the scale of the organisational changes required. An evolving external environment exacerbated this, with a professional childcare and social work cadre emerging alongside a decline in the role of Catholic Religious Congregations in the delivery of childcare services. Eventually, primarily due to inter-departmental difficulties and a lack of consensus on particular aspects of child welfare policy, particularly in the area of juvenile justice, a staggered repeal of the Children Act 1908 emerged with the Child Care Act 1991, the Educational (Welfare) Act 2000 and the Children Act 2001, primarily sponsored by the Departments of Health, Education and Justice respectively. Ministerial responsibility for child welfare services was formalised in the early 1990s. With the raising of the age of criminal responsibility to 12 (with certain exceptions) in 2006 and the ending of the role of the Department of Education in the administration of residential childcare in 2007, the core recommendations of the Kennedy Report were realised. In the intervening period, a range of issues not specifically discussed by the Kennedy Report were debated and policy decisions taken, particularly in relation to child abuse and specifically abuse in institutional settings.9 These debates are, of course, not unique to Ireland, and in recent years considerable debate has taken place on the extent and nature of abuse in residential childcare settings in, for example, the UK10 and Canada.11

This paper firstly provides an overview of the current configuration of child welfare services in Ireland. It then presents data on the shifting patterns of child welfare interventions between 1960 and the present, highlighting in particular the decline in the number of children in residential care. The paper then reviews the debates on child welfare from the mid-1960s to the publication of the Interim Report of the Task Force on Child Care Services in 1975, including in particular the Report of the Committee of Enquiry into Reformatory and Industrial Schools’ Systems. Detailing the difficulties and delay in implementing the recommendations broadly agreed on then follows. The paper explores, in particular, the difficulties in firstly transferring the majority of children’s homes from the Department of Education to the Department of Health; secondly, the shift from funding the homes on a capitation system to a budget system; thirdly, introducing new child welfare and juvenile justice legislation to replace the Children Act 1908 (as amended); and fourthly, the provision of secure accommodation for children. The rationale for selecting these areas is that these were core to the recommendations of the Kennedy Committee, which it is suggested, summarised the views of a range of interested parties at that time. The difficulties experienced in realising the recommendations of the Kennedy Report related not to a lack of effort by any party, but reflected that despite a broad consensus on what should be done in the area of child welfare, interested parties held opposing views on the precise mechanisms, principles and pace of change required.

In September 2008, there were 5,380 children in care in Ireland, of whom only 400 (or 7.4 percent) were in residential care. This is in stark contrast to the position in the late 1960s, when approximately 3,000 children were in various forms of residential care. At the end of the 1960s, all children’s Residential Homes were managed by either Catholic Religious Congregations or voluntary organisations, whereas by 2008 the vast majority of homes were managed directly by the State or it agents, with the last of traditional religious providers of residential care, the Sisters of Mercy ceasing their direct involvement in 2003.12 On 1st March 2007 administrative and legal responsibility for the Children Detention Schools, 13 with the exception of St Joseph’s in Clonmel14, were transferred from the Department of Education and Science to the Irish Youth Justice Service15, an executive office of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. This transfer thus ended the involvement of the Department of Education in the administration of residential childcare, a role they commenced in June 1924.16 The changes arose from the youth justice reforms approved by Government in December 2005 following a review carried out by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and given statutory effect under the Criminal Justice Act 2006.17 The rationale for transferring responsibility for the administration of the Children Detention Schools from the Department of Education and Science was: the Department has a limited role in the provision of residential care. The Department itself is of the opinion that the administration of detention schools would appear to be more appropriate to a body with experience and expertise in childcare, residential care and security issues.18

This decision concluded a debate, initiated some 40 years previously, over which Government Department should have responsibility for the administration of residential childcare in Ireland.19 By 1984, the majority of Residential Homes had been transferred to the Department of Health, with the Department of Education retaining responsibility for the administration of a small number of Reformatory and Industrial Schools, collectively referred to for administrative purposes as Special Schools since the early 1970s. Initially, the Department of Health wished to take responsibility for these schools, but this was resisted by the Department of Education as it was felt that as the educational facilities were provided on site, they were the appropriate Government Department to administer them. By the mid-1980s, the Department of Education was agreeable to transferring the Schools to the Department of Health, but by now, Health was not willing to accept them. By the late 1980s, the Department of Education had firmly concluded that they were not the appropriate Department to manage these schools, and recommended that the Department of Justice take responsibility for their management. It was not until the mid-2000s that the issue was finally resolved and the Department of Education finally severed their role in administering the schools. Thus, from once being the Government Department with primary responsibility for residential care for both offending and non-offending children for most of the 20th century, the Department of Education and Science now has responsibility only for the educational input in the schools. Working with the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (which was established in 2005), the objective of the Irish Youth Justice Service is to ensure co-ordination between the various agencies that provide services in the youth justice arena (e.g. probation services, the Gardaí, the courts etc.) in the context of the Children Act 2001 and in addition to running the children detention schools as noted above. The establishment of both the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Irish Youth Justice Service were in response to long-standing criticisms that a fundamental flaw in the Irish child welfare system was the absence of a lead Department, and a lack of co-ordination between the disparate elements that made up the child welfare system.20

The aforementioned Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA) is part of the Department of Health and Children. The role of the OMCYA, which was set up by the Government in December 2005, is to implement the National Children’s Strategy21 and bring greater coherence to policy-making for children. The OMCYA units that are part of the Department of Health and Children include: Minister’s Office Staff and Advisor, the Child Welfare and Protection Policy Unit, the Childcare Directorate (formerly part of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform) and the National Children and Young People’s Strategy Unit (formerly the National Children’s Office22). The Minister of State, who has special responsibility for children, is officially styled Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and at the Department of Education and Science (with special responsibility for Children), and is a junior ministerial post in the Departments of Health and Children, Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform of the Government of Ireland. The Minister works together with the various senior Ministers in these departments and has special responsibility for children’s affairs. The Minister of State does not hold cabinet rank, but does, however, attend cabinet meetings. The position, in its current form, was created on 20th December 1994. The current incumbent is Barry Andrews, TD, who took up the post in May 2008.23

In a series of further High Court actions, the courts identified a gap in Irish childcare legislation in that health boards were adjudged not to have powers of civil detainment. The judgments resulting from these actions led to the establishment of a small number of high support and special care units for children by the Department of Health, in conjunction with the health boards.41 However, the number of children before the High Court continued to grow and, in July 1998, Justice Kelly issued an order to force the Minister for Health to provide sufficient accommodation for the children appearing before him in order to vindicate their constitutional rights. In his conclusion, Mr Justice Kelly stated: It is no exaggeration to characterise what has gone on a scandal. I have had evidence of inter-departmental wrangles over demarcation lines going on for months, seemingly endless delays in drafting and redrafting legislation, policy that appears to be made only to be reversed and a waste of public resources on. For example, going through an entire planning process for the Portrane development only for the Minister to change his mind, thereby necessitating the whole process being gone through again. The addressing of the rights of the young people that I have to deal with appears to be bogged down in a bureaucratic and administrative quagmire. I have come to the conclusion that the response of the Minister to date falls far short of what this Court was reasonably entitled to expect concerning the provision of appropriate facilities for young people with difficulties of the type with which I am dealing.42

The Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) was set up on an administrative basis in 1999 to inspect social services in Ireland. The inspectorate emerged from the recommendations of the Report on the Inquiry into Madonna House, which reported in May 1996 and recommended that an Inspectorate of Social Services be established on a statutory basis, which would have responsibility for ‘quality assurance and audit of childcare practice in all areas of personal social services, including the children’s residential sector.’50 From 1999 to 2007 the work of the SSI focused on children in care, primarily on inspection of residential care. In 2004 a pilot inspection of foster care services was conducted and this was followed in 2006 with inspections of two private foster care agencies. The SSI conducted inspections of statutory residential childcare services (i.e. services managed by the Health Service Executive (HSE), formerly the health boards), under statutory powers contained in section 69 of the Child Care Act 1991. SSI inspectors are authorised to enter any premises maintained by the HSE under the Act and examine the state and management of the premises and the treatment of children there and examine such records and interview such members of staff as they see fit. The Department of Health and Children administered it until May 2007, when it was established on a statutory basis as the Office of the Chief Inspector of Social Services within the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).51

The development of guidelines on the reporting, investigation and management of child abuse cases in Ireland began at a meeting in the Department of Health in May 1975, the purpose of which was to discuss the problem of ‘non accidental injury to children’ that had been brought to the attention of the Department by medical consultants from Crumlin and Harcourt St Hospitals. It was agreed at the meeting that (1)there was a significant problem of non-accidental injury to children in Ireland; (2)that the position should be examined and procedures suggested for dealing with such cases and for ensuring the co-operation of parties dealing with such cases; and (3)that a central register of such cases should be examined.

Following the meeting, a committee was established to address the above issues, comprised principally of medical doctors, a superintendent public health nurse, a senior ISPCC officer, a medical social worker and two civil servants. A sub-group was subsequently formed to draw up a detailed memorandum on the matters considered by the Committee. Emerging from this, and assisted by information obtained from British authorities, the first report of the Department of Health Committee on Non-Accidental Injury was published in March 1976, providing a basis for all subsequent child abuse guidelines issued by central government.53

The focus of the Department of Health report was essentially clinical, emphasising the need for early identification of ‘battered’ children. It provided an ‘index of suspicion’ to assist the identification of child abuse, which was almost entirely based on physical symptoms of injury, with a proportionately marginal emphasis on ‘nutritional deprivation, neglect and emotional deprivation and trauma’.54 It defined the case conference as an essential part of the ‘team effort’ required for the investigation and management of suspected non-accidental injury (NAI). Overall responsibility for calling the conference was assigned to the Director of Community Care (a medical doctor) though the delegation of this function ‘to a senior member of his medical staff’ was permitted. The list of suggested attendees demonstrated a clear expectation of significant involvement by hospital staff in the management of the case.

The report also recommended the establishment and maintenance of what it described as a ‘central registry’ of cases ‘to act as a reference for personnel concerned to ascertain whether a child was already widely known to different medical practitioners, hospitals or social workers as a case of suspected or diagnosed non-accidental injury. The placement of the register in a paediatric department, health board or the ISPCC was mooted, with the suggestion that, in Dublin, it should be administered by a senior medical officer in the child health section of the EHB to facilitate medical involvement and medical confidentiality. While it was also suggested that ‘every effort should be made to provide adequate community care services to the families involved’, and awareness-raising amongst community agencies was recommended the report and its recommendations were primarily intended for medical staff. Responsibility for overall coordination of services was to belong to the Department of Health, while it was recommended that the health boards establish area committees, which would comprise of appropriate health board staff and hospital representatives.

In 1980, the Department of Health published the first complete set of Irish child protection guidelines, entitled Guidelines on the Identification and Management of Non-Accidental Injury to Children.57 A list of potential clinical indicators of child abuse was again provided, and the necessity for the co-operation of non-health board professionals was emphasised. As the title implies, the focus was still heavily on physical abuse of children, with ‘nutritional deprivation’ and ‘signs of general neglect’ merely cited as part of the ‘index of suspicion’ of NAI. The roles of the Directors of Community Care were more clearly defined as responsible for the management of child abuse in their areas, representing a slight shift to the community from the hospital or clinical setting reflected in the earlier documents. Recommended procedures for the investigation of reports, and the ‘monitoring and co-ordination’ of child abuse cases were outlined, the case conference retained a central position and the maintenance of a ‘list’ of suspected and actual cases of non-accidental injury was again recommended. The rights to involvement of parents in case conferences or decision making were not mentioned. Another set of guidelines with the same title was published in 1983 with basically the same contents with slightly more detailed guidance on the transfer of information and the role of the health boards in circulating the guidelines. Despite the fact that there was some awareness amongst child protection services at that time of child sexual abuse, it was not mentioned in the guidance.58

During the same decade, the aforementioned Child Care Act 1991 had been implemented, and the services operated by the health boards in respect of children had been restructured. In addition, the Irish Catholic Bishops also produced a framework for responding to child sexual abuse by priests and religious in 1996.76 The question of introducing mandatory reporting had been raised and dropped, and the responsibility for the management of child abuse was re-assigned from the medical directors of community care (whose posts were abolished) to the newly created posts of child care manager in each community care area.77 Additional posts of ‘community child care worker’ and ‘family support worker’ had been added to community care teams. It was in this context that Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection & Welfare of Children were developed by a multi-disciplinary working group appointed by the Junior Minister with responsibility for Health and Children and published by the Department of Health and Children in 1999. A protocol had been published by the Department of Health in 1995 outlining the steps to be taken by An Garda Síochána and the health board when notifying each other of suspected child sexual abuse and this was incorporated into Children First, along with broader definitions of child abuse which was now classified into four types: neglect, emotional abuse (including the witnessing of domestic violence), physical abuse and sexual abuse, each of which was explicitly defined within a broad context. Children First included a section on family support, which was recommended for early intervention into cases where harm to a child had not reached the ‘abuse’ threshold.