Special Interest Group of Children and Families

2010 / 11            Chairperson:                     Paul McCarthy

                             Secretary:                           Mieke Ryan and Fiona Power

Introduction:

The Children and Families Special Interest Group has continued to meet approximately every 4 to 6 weeks over the past year in various venues, but in the main at the IASW offices at St. Andrews Resource Centre. Currently this Special Interest Group is, in the main, made up of Social Workers from the Dublin region, however it is hoped that over the coming year that further regional subgroups can be formed as part of the Special Interest Group’s hopes to broaden the membership of the Special Interest Group and therefore the scope of this group in terms of representing a wider and inclusive representative voice for Social Workers working the in area of Children and Family services. This is something which the Special Interest Group believes is vitally important

in enabling the voices of frontline practitioners to be heard at a time of great change and new beginnings for Children and Family services in Ireland. 

The Children and Families Special Interest Group of the IASW aims to provide its members with a network and forum to explore, discuss and exchange ideas and information on relevant professional perspectives and other issues effecting their practice, as well as providing a peer support network for members. The SIG also aims to be a voice for Social Workers in Children and Family services and also, importantly, to advocate on behalf of service users. 

‘Call for Change’

As part of the IASW’s ‘Challenges for Social Work Practice’ series of events in relation to CPD, the Children and Families SIG presented a half-day seminar in September 2009 which addressed some of the challenges facing Social Workers in relation to HSE’s planned introduction of the Standardised Business Process model in Children and Family services, and explored some of the issues in relation to the value of assessment procedures and tools in social work practice. Professor Sue White (now based in the Institute of Applied Social Studies at the University of Birmingham), a member of the 2009 UK Social Work Task Force and more recently one of three expert advisors to the Munro Report on Child Protection, gave the keynote address at this seminar. The SIG also presented a well-received Workshop on the Standardised Business Process model at last year’s IASW AGM. 

Members of the SIG had, and subsequently continued to exhaust all available avenues of consultation with the HSE and government in relation to the development and introduction of the Standardised Business Process model both locally and nationally. This included members having taken part in the HSE’s own consultation process; members having addressed the then Minister for Children, Barry Andrews, at a Town Hall meeting and also the SIG having separately met with the then Minister to discuss the issue; and members having submitted lengthy and detailed submissions to the HSE in relation to the issue. However, following the HSE’s announcement that the model was to go ahead and having exhausted all available avenues of consultation without any success, members of the SIG, having noted that neither their submissions, views or concerns in general had been actively considered in the process, tabled a motion at the 2010 IASW AGM calling on the IASW to oppose the introduction of the Standardised Business Process model. This motion was passed unanimously by the AGM. Subsequently the SIG met with the then HSE Assistant National Director of Children and Family Services, Phil Garland, and advised him of the IASW’s position in this regard. 

Following on from this the SIG formed a subgroup with the goal of developing a ‘Call for Change’ discussion document in response. This process involved the SIG sending out a call for Social Workers in Children and Family services to submit their views and ideas on what they would like to see for the future development of practice in this area. Having compiled these submissions, the subgroup then began the process of collating these into the final discussion document. This process has being ongoing for most of the past year, however it is now in its final stages and the final document will be published by the IASW and launched at a forthcoming seminar, being organised by the SIG, in early July 2011.

This seminar will address the issue of Social Worker’s responses to the HSE’s introduction of the Standardised Business Process model and will also seek to look at alternative models which would meet the needs of the HSE, good Social Work practice and most importantly, the needs of service users, in a more progressive, holistic and evidence-based manner, taking account of evidence-based research and best-practice in this area. The date and details of this seminar, which will also include the holding of the SIG’s AGM immediately after the seminar, will be circulated in the coming weeks. 

The ‘Call for Change’ document does not purport to be a definitive response but rather the vehicle through which a process of consultation with Social Workers nationally can begin, out of which the coherent and experienced voices of Social Workers will be heard in the national debate on this and other issues affecting our profession. It is hoped that part of this process will involve the SIG researching, discussing and developing alternatives to the current system in place in Children and Family services, alternatives which can then be presented to the HSE and government as realistic and achievable opportunities for positive change in Children and Family services. A summarised version of the main ‘Call for Change’ discussion document was recently published in the Spring edition of the IASW’s Irish Social Worker journal. 

Other developments:

While it must be said that the ‘Call for Change’ process and related tasks have taken up the vast majority of the SIG’s time over the past year, there have been other notable developments. The SIG also two other motions, which were both passed at last year’s IASW AGM. The first of these called on the IASW to draw attention to the inequities in the provision of care and aftercare services to separated young people, and the second called on the IASW to meet with the HSE’s Assistant National Director for Children and Family Services to request that the IASW be represented on any future taskforce, committee or otherwise involved in any initiatives to do with Children and Family services, including the reconfiguration of children and family services. 

As noted, the IASW did subsequently meet with the then AND of Children and Family Services, Phil Garland, and Mr. Garland welcomed this request and indicated his openness to this request. More recently the IASW, including representation from the SIG, met with the new recently appointed HSE National Director for Children and Family Services, Gordon Jeyes. Again the issues of consultation with the IASW and the inclusion of IASW representatives on consultative bodies in relation to Children and Family services were brought up and again Mr. Jeyes also indicated his openness to facilitate this request. It is to be hoped that this openness will now be translated into tangible consultation with the IASW. 

Over the past year the SIG contributed to IASW media press releases and responses on issues such as CORU and Professional Registration, the issue of the state’s mandatory responsibility to provide Aftercare services to young people leaving the care system, the Roscommon Report, the need for all children-in-care and children at risk to have an allocated Social Worker, the publication of a number of HIQA Inspection Reports, the death of a young person in care, the need for appropriate fit-for-purpose accommodation for the Out of Hours services and the issue of a national Out of Hours service, the Ombudsman for Children’s Annual Report, the planned Referendum of the Rights of the Child, the National Quality Standards for Residential & Foster Care Services for Children, and the regulation of the Guardian ad Litem service. The SIG will continue to strive to be active on this front in the coming year, with the added aim of increasing a positive wider awareness and understanding of the role of Social Workers in Children and Family services. 

One of the newer aims of the SIG has been to develop links with other agencies and bodies who share a common interest in Children and Family services and to this end it has begun a planned programme of meeting with such agencies and bodies, which will continue in the coming year, by meeting recently with the Children’s Rights Alliance, which was a very positive experience and has opened an important link for the SIG. The SIG also hopes to develop links with IMPACT in the coming year in relation to the many and varied issues which will be impacting on Social Workers and Social Work practice in Children and Family services with the wide-ranging changes and restructuring which are due to come on stream. 

Priorities for the coming year:

Time is precious is the often hectic and busy lives of Children and Family Social Workers and as noted, the ‘Call for Change’ work has taken up a lot of the time of the SIG over the past year. However, as this process nears an end, it is hoped that the forthcoming AGM of the SIG – to be held in July in conjunction with the launch of the ‘Call for Change’ document – will be an opportunity to welcome some fresh faces and ideas to the SIG and with them new ideas and areas to work on. In particular the SIG would like to return to working on professional practice issues for Social Workers in Children and Family services. For example, previously the SIG had been divided into smaller subgroups and one of these subgroups, The Professional Practice and Structural Challenges group worked on a developing a document in relation to issues relating to Access for Children-in-Care. The SIG welcomes ideas on any areas of practice which members would like to work on, and of course we also welcome the new members to help to do this work. 

The recent responses and reactions to the proposed €350 CORU registration fee for Social Workers and the wider issues of concern around registration and its implications have been very encouraging. The overwhelming response has led to the setting up of a Facebook page, ‘Social Workers Unite to Win’ (www.facebook.com/people/SocialWorkers-Unite-To-Win/100002283186790). This Facebook page, which was set up on 25th March last already had over 350 members within one month of going live and was instrumental, through its series of petitions from Student Social Workers, in forcing a rethink, on CORU’s behalf, in relation to the proposed registration fee. The campaigning efforts of the group deserve great credit and should also serve as an example of what can be achieved when we come together to speak as one voice. In addition, we welcome the establishment of the New Social Workers Special Interest Group, which hosts its own impressive website (www.newsocialworkers.com). 

The coming months and years will be characterised by a period of unprecedented change in Children and Family services, with the HSE’s introduction of the Standard Business Process model and its related National Childcare Information System and the government’s announcement that Children and Family services will be taken out of the HSE and placed within the newly established Ministry for Children and Young People, to which the first Cabinet Minister for Children, former Social Worker Frances Fitzgerald, has been appointed, and also the forthcoming referendum on Children’s rights. A time of great change is also a time of great opportunity and the Children and Families SIG hopes to help give Children and Family Social Workers a voice in this.