A study commissioned by the Government has found that those regions of the State with the highest number of children in care have the lowest level of family support services. The conclusion makes perfect sense. Neglect and poor planning in the provision of early intervention services for children and families at risk have inevitable consequences. But those consequences are frequently ignored until official studies, such as this one, underline the necessity for change.
High-quality family support services are vital if social unrest and future communal problems are to be minimised and the lives of young and vulnerable citizens improved. Apart from providing money for services, the manner in which that money is spent will have a key bearing on the effectiveness of State intervention. Prevention is always better than cure.
Some of the conclusions reached in this review of family support services within the health sector were damning. Health authorities are not meeting their statutory obligation to provide sufficient support to families and children in crisis. If they did so, fewer children would be placed in care and a better-developed and more responsive family support system would be the result. In spite of a dramatic increase in funding in recent years, not enough attention is being paid to the areas of prevention and early intervention, the report found. The bulk of extra funding in some regions is being directed towards late intervention and crisis situations, leading to frustration among the professionals involved and a conclusion that there is no over-arching vision or set of principles driving the development of the services.
These support systems are called upon by about half a million people annually and cost the State more than €200 million. They include mediation, counselling and childcare and they are designed to prevent marital breakdown and promote family stability. The ratio of children taken into care was found to correspond to the quality of child services. In the eastern region, three times as many children were placed in care as in the western region, where early intervention services were developed.
Long-term planning and reform has been a missing feature for many years. Families at risk must be accorded greater priority. Help should not be confined to counselling and childcare. An estimated 20,000 low-income working families are not claiming top-up welfare payments that would make an enormous difference to their quality of life. And improvements in education services through local initiatives are urgently required. Comprehensive, joined-up action is the way forward.