HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny - hiqa.ie

Inspection of the HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny Local Health Area in theHSE South RegionHealth Information and Quality Authorityand Carlow County Development Board. The Committee was in its infancy butshowed potential to use resources in an effective and coordinated manner.In Kilkenny, there was no such initiative, but the Revitalising Areas by Planning,Investment and Development (RAPID) programme provided an alternative. Itreported into the SIM working group of the Kilkenny County Development Board.This programme had informed service delivery. For example, a joint localauthority/HSE funded youth café and drop-in centre had been established in theeastern part of the town to meet an identified service need. The area manager alsogave an example of a Garda Síochána youth diversion project which identified keyrisk times for the youth of Kilkenny being between 16:00-20:00hrs on Fridays and upuntil 02:00hrs on Sundays. The area manager was in ongoing discussions with acommunity agency which could provide a service to meet this need.There were examples of effective commissioning and delivery of services fromdifferent agencies. The voluntary and community sector provided a range ofuniversal and targeted services within the LHA. For example, a teen parent supportproject, ‘Moving On’, aimed to empower young mothers, enrich their lives and thoseof their children, and ‘Folláine counselling service’, a free and confidential service foryoung people to help them come to terms with problems in their lives. Services werebeing commissioned to provide focused programmes which met local need. However,in the absence of a needs analysis of the vulnerable children and families in the area,it was difficult to determine whether their capacity had been sufficiently developed orutilised.Efforts were being made by the LHA to achieve value for money in the use ofcommissioned services. At the time of the inspection, grant aid agreements underSection 39 of the Health Act 2004 were being reviewed by the area manager. As partof the inspection, inspectors met with a focus group from the voluntary andcommunity sector. Participants identified that they had had to put a lot of work intomaking their service well known and utilised by the social work department, includingattending staff meetings. Two participants identified that their services were notbeing well utilised.Arrangements were in place to monitor and evaluate financial performance. Budgetsand staffing reports were provided to the regional and national office on a monthlybasis. The LHA was facing particular challenges with the 2012 budget. The areamanager reported that the children’s social care budget (€12.2 million) had aprojected overspend of €1.9 million. Inspectors viewed the corporate risk registerwhich identified failure to deliver on the 2012 service plan as a result of budgetaryconstraints, as a major risk for the LHA. The area manager told inspectors thathe/she attended monthly finance meetings with the service director and financemanager where procurement activities, monthly expenditure and service deliverywere monitored. The area manager identified where the financial overspend hadoccurred and where the discrepancies were in the current system. S/he toldinspectors that spending was being curtailed in certain areas. Social workers40