An Taoiseach and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs officially launch Ireland’s new Child and Family Agency

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD, today joined with Frances Fitzgerald TD, Minister for Children & Youth Affairs to officially launch the new Child and Family Agency. Today’s launch event took place at Dublin Castle attended by over 200 invited guests. An Taoiseach and the Minister were joined by Ms. Norah Gibbons, Chairperson of the Agency and Mr. Gordon Jeyes, Chief Executive Officer.

Establishment of the Agency delivers on a key Programme for Government commitment and represents one of the largest and most important public sector reforms being undertaken by this Government bringing together over 4,000 staff and a budget of some €609 million to provide a dedicated focus on services for children & families.

The new Agency will have responsibility for a range of services previously delivered across three separate agencies, the HSE child and family services, the National Education Welfare Board and the Family Support Agency (including the nationwide network of 106 family resource centres).

Addressing  the launch, Minister Fitzgerald stated: “I’ve always thought it was  indicative of our flawed approach to child and family services in this country  that  for  so  long  they  were treated like an adjunct of another agency, as an afterthought. But not anymore.”

The Minister noted that the new Agency will:
   –     take  child  protection services out from where they were lost in an
      overloaded health service;
   –     bring  education  welfare  and  family  support  together with child
      protection and welfare;
   –     break   down   barriers  between  agencies  and  services;  between
      professional disciplines;
   –     deliver  much  more  seamless  integration  of  policy  and  service
      delivery, not fragmentation.

The Minister stated: “For the first time we will have child and family social workers, family support workers, social care workers and education welfare officers all working together to protect children and support families.”

“We  are  going  to move from a position where child and family welfare was barely  a  priority,  to  a  position  where it will be the sole focus of a single  dedicated  state  agency, with a ring-fenced budget and streamlined management, overseen by a single dedicated government Department.”

The  Minister  added  that  this is not just a child protection agency. She said  that  “it  very  deliberately has ‘family’ in its name.  It will pull together  and  give  single  coherent  direction  to  all of the strands of service  for  our families most in need in a way that has never happened in this country   before; including   prevention  and  early  intervention programmes,  both  universal  and  targeted,  as  well as  family  support services,  the  nationwide  network  of  106  family  resource  centres and education welfare services.”

The  Minister  added:  “We  will  not  fix  the problems overnight. It took decades  for  the legacy we inherited to develop; it will take years to fix it.  But  just like calling in HIQA to inspect services, or like installing Children  First  across  the  country, or moving sixteen and seventeen year olds  from  St.  Patrick’s  institution to Oberstown, this is a major step. Possibly  the  most  major.  Because  now,  the  people at frontline and at management  level who dedicate themselves to helping families can begin the process  of  developing  not  just  a  national agency, but a national team providing  the  consistent commitment  and  competence  we  have  been  so lacking.”