Submission to the Strategic Plan for the Family Support Agency
September 2003
Introduction
Comhairle supports the provision of information, advice and advocacy services through the network of 85 Citizens Information Centres (CICs) around the country, by developing and maintaining the Citizens Information and OASIS Databases and through the provision of a wide range of training and support programmes. Comhairle also supports the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. One of Comhairle's statutory functions is to promote and develop the provision of information on the effectiveness of current social policy and services and to highlight issues which are of concern to CIC clients. In delivering on this function Comhairle relies heavily on feedback from CICs and on networking with other community and voluntary organisations to build up a pool of knowledge covering inequities, gaps and anomalies in both entitlements and service delivery.
Comhairle welcomes this opportunity to contribute to the development of the Family Support Agency's Strategic Plan and wishes the new Agency well in its work.
Relationship with the Family Support Agency
While Comhairle has had limited involvement with the Family Support Agency to date there are a number of areas where Comhairle's work may contribute to the work of the FSA or it may be possible to liaise in a way that could be reflected in the FSA Strategic Plan.
Comhairle's Social Policy remit and the Family Support Agency
While there is no specific social policy feedback remit in the Family Support Agency Act 2001, the Act provides for an advisory role to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs and for a research function for the Agency. A possible relationship between Comhairle and the Family Support Agency might include liaising as regards feedback from the Citizens Information Centres, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service and the Citizens Information Call Centre as regards the impact that Government policy is having on families. Comhairle could work with the Family Support Agency to develop a process of social policy feedback from the Family and Community Services Resource Centre Programme and from the Family Mediation Service to inform the Minister of trends in policy and the effects these are having on families.
The national network of CICs dealt with almost half a million queries from members of the public in 2002. This is an increase of over 20% on the numbers in 2001. The number of queries has increased by 70% since 1997.
CICs report queries with a social policy dimension to Comhairle where they are analysed and used as the basis for policy submissions and reports. During 2002, CICs submitted a total of 1062 records of relevant queries to Comhairle, 772 of these were deemed by CICs to have social policy implications. During the first seven months of this year 639 social policy returns have been submitted to Comhairle. In the Citizens Information Centres Survey Report 2001, 8% of total queries were registered as specifically family related and one third of these, 33% related to separation and divorce.
The Citizens Information Centres Survey 2003, which is based on a large sample of CIC queries, is taking place at the moment and it will be interesting to make a comparison with the survey of 2001. This type of information could be of benefit to the ongoing development of the Family Support Agency.
Family Matters
The National Social Services Board (which amalgamated with the National Rehabilitation Board to form Comhairle in 2000), published a social policy report in September 1994 (the Year of the Family). This publication called Family Matters, aimed to reflect many of the realities of society through the concerns expressed by members of the public who visited Citizen Information Centres. The main themes identified in the report were marriage breakdown, lone parents and cohabitation. The report raised a number of important policy issues. Underlying these issues was the need to support and develop an ethos of joint parenting in the context of a range of diverse and changing family structures. Comhairle plans to publish an update of Family Matters in 2004 for the tenth anniversary of the Year of the Family. Again it is important that the Family Support Agency takes account of feedback from various sources on the impact of policy on families so that policy changes do not have a negative impact on families.
Family Information Service
The Family Matters Report 1993 saw a need for
"information services to provide free, impartial information on a range of services required by families in distress. This information would include details about social welfare, housing, counselling, joint parenting, child custody, maintenance, mediation, barring orders, access and the legal aspects of separation (and divorce). While the main priority of this service would be to provide advice and information, it could also act as a referral agency for families in need of the various professional services."
Comhairle is aware that Family Services Projects to enhance information services for families have been established in local offices of the Department of Social and Family Affairs in Waterford, Cork, Limerick Mullingar and Finglas in Dublin. These Projects were set up on a pilot basis and aim to provide improved access to information for families through the Social Welfare Local Offices. These pilot projects may be mainstreamed to all Social Welfare Offices in the future.
While the various channels of information provision supported by Comhairle deal with the complexities of information for families, information provision, with the support of Comhairle, could be further developed within the Family and Community Services Resource Centre Programme and the Family Mediation Service. Staff in these Centres could develop an information expertise, given the broad range of information on family matters available and the complexity of the inter-related aspects of family support.
Close liaison between Comhairle, the Family Services Projects and information provision within the Family and Community Services Resource Centre Programme will be important to maximise effect and avoid duplication of effort. The Family Support Agency will be important in facilitating these partnerships.
Promotion
It will be important for the Family Support Agency to promote awareness of the range and type of services available to help families so that they can decide which service is most appropriate to their needs. Knowledge of and therefore earlier contact with the appropriate service can mean that these services can respond more effectively. The FSA could promote information and services for families through the Comhairle information channels; the Citizens Information Centres, the Citizen Information Call Centre and the websites OASIS and the Citizens Information Database.
Broader Understanding of Family
There is a need for the Family Support Agency to examine issues like the understanding of the term family, which underpins legislation. In addition to the concept of the family based on marriage there is also a need to recognize and encompass other family ties and bonds "amounting to family life" such as those that exist between some couples who are not married and who may not even be cohabiting. (European Court of Human Rights, 1994). Such a broader understanding of family would allow for a more adequate response to issues such as welfare payments, taxation, violence, abuse, joint parenting and custody / guardianship / access to children in the case of non-marital families. The Family Support Agency is well placed to facilitate and contribute to the debate on these issues.
The Centrality of Children in Family Policy
It is important in any reflection on Strategy in an
organisation like the Family Support Agency that children
remain central to whatever strategic direction the Agency
takes. A recent publication;
"Encouraging Voices - respecting the insights of young people who have been marginalized", edited by Michael Shevlin and Richard Rose, National Disability Authority 2003, Dympna Devine states that "while discourse in relation to children's rights and citizenship has recently filtered into Irish Governmental policy (National Children's Strategy, 2000), such discourse will only be realized in practice when the dynamics of power and control currently exercised between adults and children are brought to the fore".It will be important to the work of the Family Support Agency to maintain close links with the National Children's Office and the proposed Office of the Ombudsman for Children.
Accessibility
Considering the mainstreaming of services for people with disabilities, the National Anti Poverty Strategy and the stated Government aim to increase social inclusion, it is important that services for families be targeted to those most in need. Geographical accessibility and accessibility of services to marginalised groups should be a priority. Presently the Family Mediation Service is accessibile to only a limited population.
Strategic Contact
Comhairle suggests that some form of strategic contact in terms of the ongoing development of both organizations would be beneficial.
