Health Minister announces £3.5million to strengthen child protection services

Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey today announced an additional £3.5million investment in child protection services.

The funding will create around 70 extra posts in Health and Social Care Trusts’ Gateway and Family Intervention Teams, and it comes on top of the £10million already allocated to children’s services during the current three-year Comprehensive Spending Review period.

The Minister said: “We all have a duty to ensure that our children receive the greatest level of protection possible. This investment, which is part of the extra money I fought hard to secure during the Budget negotiations, is further evidence of my commitment to improving services in this very complex area.

“Child protection services are undergoing a substantial programme of reform and the demands placed on Family and Childcare Services have risen substantially. I recognise the substantial pressure this has placed on front line staff and that we need to invest more resource into these services.

“I want to strengthen the ability of our child protection services to work in partnership with other agencies and partners, particularly in the voluntary sector who play such a vital role in protecting children and supporting families.

“I also want to strengthen co-operation with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). I am therefore funding a number of posts which will be used to pilot new closer working arrangements with the PSNI, improving the exchange of information and helping both workforces to learn and develop together.”

He added: “Social workers in Northern Ireland undertake a very difficult role. Overwhelmingly, they do so with a high degree of commitment and professionalism.

“I want to see an emphasis on continuously improving professional practice and not just on finding out who is to blame when things go wrong. I want to ensure that staff are equipped to do the job we are asking them to do and I want to see systems in place which identify any short comings before – not after – they can result in a child coming to harm.

“Finally, I want to recognise and support the role which Health Visitors and Child Protection Nurses play in early prevention and in identifying child protection concerns and prevention. I therefore intend to broaden the child protection reform programme to explicitly strengthen the role they play in protecting children.”

Notes to Editors:

• Gateway Teams are responsible for dealing with vulnerable children referred to social services and ensuring that the longer-term needs of families can be met.
• Following the launch of a Department led multi-agency, multi-professional inspection of child protection the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety established a Reform Implementation Team to address issues which contributed to the findings of the inspection. This team has involved staff from a number of agencies in the statutory, voluntary and community sectors working in partnership to develop procedures aimed at improving child protection services.
• There are currently over 420 staff working in HSC Trust Gateway and Family Intervention Teams. Gateway Teams are responsible for initial assessment of referrals made to Social Services whilst Family Intervention Teams deal with the longer-term needs of those that have been referred.
• The additional posts will include over 50 to further strengthen front line child protection and family intervention services. An additional 10 posts will be created to strengthen the role Trusts play in assisting the police to assess the risks posed by sex and violent offenders and pilot new arrangements for social work staff to work alongside PSNI officers investigating abuse and violent crime against children and vulnerable adults. A further 11 posts will be permanently funded to strengthen the reform of child protection services – including ensuring best practice is embedded within nursing and midwifery practice in relation to identifying children at risk and strengthening their role in preventing children from being abused.
• The Department has introduced a wide range of reforms aimed at strengthening child protection services, supported by investments of over £1million into child protection teams over the past two years and the creation of expert Principal Practitioner posts in each HSC Trust to provide support to less experienced members of staff.
• The number of referrals to Social Services rose by 2,340 (9%) from 25,748 in 2003/04 to 28,088 in 2007/08. The number of children referred to Social Services rose by 4,122 (24%) from 16,987 in 2003/04 to 21,109 in 2007/08.
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