Debate contribution: Children’s Social Care Services
Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on .
- MLA
- Mrs Diane Dodds
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 October 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Committee Business
- Heading
- Children’s Social Care Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4581581
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I apologise for my late arrival in the Chamber. One thing is clear from the contributions: the review of children's services and the debate that we are having will be meaningless and, as Mr McGrath said, just "warm words" if we do not hear from the Minister about the positive action that will come out of the debate. The review report was published about 18 months ago. The Department has been working on aspects of the review, but we really need to hear about decisions. Minister, the message from the Chamber today is about the importance of making decisions for some of the most vulnerable children and families in our community. Members have mentioned many aspects of the review, so I will highlight some issues, particularly those in my constituency that I have found harrowing and very difficult to deal with. The independent review by Professor Jones found that referrals to children's social services are consistently higher in Northern Ireland than they are in England, the Republic of Ireland or Wales. Also, a higher proportion of Northern Ireland's child population are considered to be children in need and have a child protection plan. In recent years, there has been a proportionately greater growth in the number of children in care in Northern Ireland. That should be a stark warning to us all. High levels of staff vacancies are leading to large numbers of cases being unallocated and over 4,000 children and their families waiting after crossing an initial threshold for involvement with statutory children's social care. I was particularly concerned about the review findings on fostering and, specifically, the recruitment of foster carers. Foster carers play a vital role in supporting vulnerable children and young people, and we commend those who provide high-quality care to our families and communities. Despite rising demand, there is, according to estimates compiled by the Fostering Network, a deficit of almost 300 foster carers locally. As I said, through my constituency service, I have seen some harrowing examples of families that are at crisis point and need foster care. The pressures on the service have knock-on effects on the pathways of the young people and their ability to succeed throughout their lives. People offer to help with emergency fostering when a young person has no other options available to them, but, having been good enough to take that step, the new emergency foster family is sometimes left helpless, unable to obtain the assistance or reassurance that it feels it needs because some of the social workers are, for whatever reason, continuously unavailable. The gap in supply here has had huge consequences, given that four in five children who go into care are supported through fostering. A lack of available foster carers means that some children will experience multiple moves, leading to poorer outcomes for stability, personal health and well-being. It is welcome that the delivery plan for 2024-25 for the children's social care services strategic reform programme contains plans to, by April 2025, conclude a review of fostering service models to improve performance in foster care recruitment and retention and develop additional short breaks provision. That is not a long time, Minister, and we need action in that respect. A lack of respite services is also placing a huge strain on many families, particularly the parents and carers of children with a disability or special educational needs.
Thank you. The Member is absolutely right. Anyone who watched the programme on the BBC could not help but be affected by it. It is a shame on us all that so many families are left to cope on their own with so few short breaks. What I find really difficult about that is the difference between trusts in the services that they offer. Some trusts have very few or no programmes for short breaks; others manage quite well. When families move from one trust area to another, they find that their respite care is suddenly removed from them. I have said before and will continue to say that those are the strategic, inherent and inbuilt inequalities in the health system that we really need to tackle.
689 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.96).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.96 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.94 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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