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Courts Need Professionally Conducted Assessments to Ensure Child Safety

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Press Release

Courts Need Professionally Conducted Assessments to Ensure Child Safety

Child Contact Centre Pilot Services Evaluation Launched by One Family

(Dublin, Thursday 27 March 2014) One Family – Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families – launches the Evaluation of the Child Contact Centre pilot services and its Policy Recommendations for Policy Makers document on Friday 28 March in Dublin Castle. Speakers include the Hon Mr Justice Michael White of the High Court and Chair of the Courts Family Law Committee; Dr Stephanie Holt of the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin; and One Family CEO Karen Kiernan.

Child Contact Centre services were run on a pilot basis in two locations in north and south Dublin between 2011 and 2013 by One Family and Barnardos in a partnership arrangement. The service offered a range of assessment, contact and family support services to high-conflict families who were frequently in legal disputes in relation to contact arrangements for their children providing a safe, neutral, child-centered environment for children to spend time with the parent/s they do not live with. Common challenges for families included domestic abuse, poor mental health and addiction.

Families ranged across socio-economic backgrounds and the services were mainly used constructively by courts. Referrals to the service were from the courts (35%), self-referrals (29%) and the HSE/Social Workers (22%). 40% of families had a HSE Social Worker. Currently children may be court-ordered into unsafe contact/access situations due to inadequate information available to court.

An evaluation of the service was conducted by Candy Murphy of CMAdvice and Dr Stephanie Holt of the School of Social Work & Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin based on data for the period October 2011 to April 2013. Dr Stephanie Holt, Director of Teaching and Learning at Trinity’s School of Social Work and Social Policy comments: “For approximately 10-30% of separated families, the process by which contact is agreed is problematic and potentially dangerous. Some parents (both perpetrators and victims of domestic violence) may not see that domestic abuse impacts negatively on their ability to parent well or that such abuse may negatively impact their children. The service worked closely with all parties providing a safe place for the voice of the child to be heard and a core focus on the child’s best interest. With child-centred therapeutic support even young children were able to articulate what they wanted in terms of contact.”

Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO, in responding to the Evaluation, summarises One Family’s recommendations to policy makers: “The courts need access to professionally conducted family assessments in order to make child-centred decisions that will be safe and enforceable. This will save court time and ensure that children do not experience unsafe court-ordered contact visits. Child Contact Centre services offering supervised, supported and handover contact, in conjunction with family supports including counselling, parent mentoring and child therapy, must be part of the ancillary court services contained in the Children & Family Relationships Bill. Effective cross departmental and interagency working is essential involving the Department of Justice and Equality including the Courts Service, the Probation Service, the Legal Aid Board, the Family Mediation Service and COSC; and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs including the Child and Family Agency which now has responsibility for child protection and welfare.”

Key Statistics

  • Referrals to the service were from the courts (35%), self-referrals (29%) and the HSE/Social Workers (22%). 40% of families had a HSE Social Worker.
  • The average age of parents was 33 years old and 79% of parents were unmarried.
  • There was an average of two children per family and 66% of the children were aged 8 or younger.
  • 72% of families had been in or were in court proceedings with 58% of families having Access Orders in place.
  • 77% of children had either never lived with their non-resident parent or not lived with them for over a year.
  • At the time of the referral, 61% of children had no contact with their non-resident parent.
  • 59% of families in the service were assessed as having a current risk of child abuse and 50% of families had a current risk of domestic violence.
  • 23 Child Protection Notifications were sent by the service to the HSE in respect of 38 children.
  • The service offered children and parents 455 contact opportunities of which 333 (73%) were taken up.
  • The service offered a total of 502 counselling and parent-mentoring sessions of which 387 (77%) were taken up.

Further Information

Child Contact Centre: Key Learnings – One Family

Read/download here.

Final Evaluation of the Barnardos/One Family Pilot Child Contact Centre – CMAdvice Ltd

Read/download at here.

Executive Summary of the Barnardos/One Family Pilot Child Contact Centre – CMAdvice Ltd

Read/download here.

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 as Cherish and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes the Family Day Festival in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens. This annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland takes place on Sunday 18 May 2014 (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Karen Kiernan, CEO, One Family

Dr Stephanie Holt, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity

For Interview Scheduling/Further Information

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511 | schance@onefamily.ie

One Family 10 Solutions

Childcare Provision Failure is One of Government’s Harshest Blows to One-Parent Families

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Press Release

Childcare Provision Failure is One of Government’s Harshest Blows to One-Parent Families

www.onefamily.ie

(Dublin, Wednesday 19 March 2014) One Family – Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families in Ireland today – responds to the pending publication of a new report due for release later this month by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which will show that a family in Ireland with two children spends 40% of its average wage to meet childcare costs. Ireland is one of the most expensive countries worldwide for childcare services.

One Family has been calling for affordable, accessible childcare for many years and putting forward to Government our no-cost and low-cost solutions as part of our 10 Solutions campaign. Lack of childcare remains one of the greatest barriers to lone parents wishing to return to work and/or education. Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO, responds to the pending publication of the OECD report as follows: “This new report is timely. Currently Minister Fitzgerald is reviewing the myriad of child support schemes and their impact on low income families. One Family is recommending an amalgamation of supports into a single accessible and tailored Childcare and Out of School Care financial support programme to ensure work pays for low income families and enables them to get out of consistent and persistent poverty.”

Lone parents on social welfare will be activated (turned into job-seekers) when their youngest child is 7 years old. Success relies on activation being underpinned by local, affordable, accessible and quality child and out of school care. This is not the case as the spread and reach of services is patchy.  Stuart Duffin, One Family’s Director of Policy & Programmes, comments, “There is little room for injecting funding into delivery of existing services so we need to be creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in how we craft and model provision using available resources and assets. The outcomes need to support the needs of parents and the exchequer.”

Worldwide, many innovative schemes are in place. Yesterday a major new childcare package was launched in the UK. It aims to help millions of parents, enabling them to go out to work and providing more security for their families, while directing extra support to those children from disadvantaged backgrounds through a tax free Childcare allowance. In New Zealand, the Out of School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) Subsidy is proving to be a good economic policy.

Government is charged to commit to protecting and building childcare and out of school care spaces in both the short and long term, for families in transition and particularly for those parenting alone. For low-income parents, the lack of access to quality and affordable childcare remains a fundamental challenge to participation in the labour market. Their ability to work is jeopardised which makes the entire childcare system vulnerable and ultimately the economy as a whole. Provision of childcare and OSCAR, both before and after-school care, is an economic driver. A value-for-money and quality assured childcare service can be delivered by a well designed tax credit system which can provide the targeted support needed to help lone parents secure the employment opportunities that would lead to financial independence.

One Family reiterates its call to Government to enact its 10 Solutions campaign, with an immediate focus on childcare.  All children deserve the best start in life.

Read more about One Family’s 10 Solutions.

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 662 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes the Family Day Festival, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today, with 10,000 people attending in 2013 (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191

Stuart Duffin, Director of Policy & Programmes | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 062 2023

Further Information/Scheduling

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511

 

 

An International Women’s Day Focus – Mother’s Education Level

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Press Release

An International Women’s Day Focus –

Mother’s Education Level and Impacts on Lone Parenthood and Well-Being of Children

(Dublin, Friday 7th February 2014) One Family – Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families in Ireland today – looks forward to acknowledgment of International Women’s Day on Saturday 8th March and calls for a new look at education for women in Ireland. Founded by a small group of strong, progressive women who rejected the accepted ‘norm’ to bring about great change including the abolition of the status of illegitimacy, One Family has worked to better the lives of women and children for over four decades.

A mother’s education level has a huge effect on the well-being of children. In Ireland, the majority of lone mothers are aged between 35 and 49 (CSO 2011). Tony Fahey, UCD in ‘Growing Up In Ireland’ (GUI 2011), found that early child-bearing (before the age of 25) is the main factor predicting lone parenthood, no matter what the educational level of the mother, but that less educated women are more likely to have a first birth before age 25. Currently this group represents 6% of the total number of lone parents in the state (CSO 2011).  ‘Growing Up in a One-Parent Family’, a study by researchers at the University of Limerick using the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ data published by the Family Support Agency in December, indicated that children from one-parent families and cohabiting families fare the same as children from married families when faced with similarly adverse conditions growing up. It concluded that the traditionally perceived benefits of marriage in relation to child development are not a result of marriage itself but are due to the parent or parents’ background and educational levels.

The increase in child well-being over the past 40 years can be attributed to the better education of women, according to GUI 2011. Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO, comments: “The effect of women’s educational expansion on child well-being is enormous. Better educated women may be more likely to understand the development needs of their children and resourced to cope through stressful transitions. Improving women’s education tends to increase national wealth, which in turn improves population’s health.”

Worldwide, there were 8.2 million fewer deaths in 2011 among children younger than 5 than there were in 1970. Of those “averted deaths,” 4.2 million were the result of better-educated mothers and 590 million the result of higher-income households (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington). The rest of the lives saved were attributable to better health interventions. Researchers used data from 915 sources, mostly surveys and censuses, gathered between 1953 and 2013. The experience of countries varied widely but the research found that women are now more educated than men in 87 countries, including nearly all the rich ones.

“These findings are not surprising, but the magnitude is impressive,” says Stuart Duffin, One Family Director of Policy & Programmes. “They clearly justify what One Family has been saying for a long time – that one of the investments we need to make is women’s education and this must be supported by wrap-around, affordable childcare.”

A lack of accessible and affordable childcare in Ireland remains one of the greatest barriers to women parenting alone being able to return to education, or employment, as highlighted in One Family’s ongoing 10 Solutions campaign. One Family provides free childcare in its on-site crèche for parents participating in its learning programmes. It offers education in three main areas: parenting skills for lone parents and those sharing parenting; welfare to work initiatives such as the 20 week New Futures programme; and accredited training for professionals working with lone parent families and families in transition – the flagship Positive Parenting and Family Communications programmes.

“We’re going from a world that was heavily dominated by male educational attainment to one where women are becoming more educated than men,” Stuart Duffin further observed. “The long-term social implications of that are pretty intriguing and are important for Ireland’s economic and social development.”

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes the Family Day Festival, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today, with 10,000 people attending in 2013 (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511

 

Children and Family Relationships Bill is a Good First Step but We Have Concerns

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Press Release

Children & Family Relationships Bill provides first steps to a modern Family Law system in Ireland –

but One Family warns that family law courts need the resources to do their job properly for all children

(Dublin, Thursday 30 January 2014) One Family – Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families in Ireland today welcomes the publication of the Heads of the Children & Family Relationships Bill 2014 by Minister Alan Shatter. As an organisation that has campaigned for over 40 years for legal recognition and support for the wide diversity of families that children live in, we believe this Bill is a good first step that is long overdue.

Karen Kiernan, One Family CEO explains: “This Bill when enacted will provide a higher level of legal security for some of the diverse one-parent families that children live in. We are particularly pleased to see that people who have caring responsibility for children such as step-parents will be able to apply for guardianship, that it will be easier for extended family members such as grandparents to gain contact with their grandchildren and that more non-marital fathers will become guardians automatically of their children.”

However, One Family has some serious concerns about how aspects of the Bill can really be implemented given the serious resource restrictions that exist, and the lack of consistency and specialist knowledge that can characterise some family law proceedings and the requirement to hear children’s voices.

Kiernan continues: “We are very concerned about the lack of family assessments available to judges in family law courts which can be essential when upholding the principle of ‘a child’s best interest’. We have seen that it is extremely difficult to make nuanced and life-changing decisions without full, impartial information on what is going on in a family. A robust court welfare system will need to be put in place that can assess issues such as child protection, domestic violence, parental capacity so that judges can make informed, reasoned decisions. Such a system could also effectively hear the voice of children of all ages. The current Heads indicates that the costs of such reports, counselling, mediation or parenting courses as ordered by court will be borne by the parents involved and this is not realistic for many families.

It is time that a standardised, holistic, family-centred approach is taken to family law in Ireland where the starting point has to be the child and their family rather than the traditions of the legal system. The Bill is well-intentioned but will need an implementation plan with an attached budget to really make a difference.”

Part of what Minister Shatter is working to resolve is in relation to parenting orders and plans that are not adhered to. One Family offers a range of specialist counselling and parenting supports to people going through separation, sharing parenting of their children as well as those who parent alone. One Family also ran the two pilot Child Contact Centres over the past three years in partnership with Barnardos – a service that is now closed due to lack of government funding.

Karen Kiernan further explains: “Whilst much of this Bill is an excellent improvement on what was there, there is a big miss in relation to Child Contact Centres which are not mentioned. They have been proven to be needed and effective in reducing the dangers for children in high conflict families, in ensuring parenting orders work and in supporting families to move on to self-arranged contact. No Government department has been willing to continue funding them and they are not provided for in the Heads of Bill as a necessary service for courts.”

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes the Family Day Festival, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today, with 10,000 people attending in 2013 (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191

Further Information/Scheduling

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511

New Report Proves Marriage is not Responsible for Children’s Well-being

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Press Release

New Report Proves Marriage is not Responsible for Children’s Well-being

(Dublin, Friday 20 December 2013) One Family, Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families, welcomes the launch today of the report ‘Growing Up in a One-Parent Family’, a study by researchers at the University of Limerick using the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ data, published by the Family Support Agency.

A key finding of the study indicates that children from one-parent families and cohabiting families fare the same as children from married families when faced with similarly difficult conditions growing up. This is most detailed statistical study to date of the effects of family structure on child development, and concludes that the traditionally perceived benefits of marriage in relation to child development are not a result of marriage itself but of the parent or parents’ background.

Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family, states: “This study confirms what One Family has known for years, based on our 41 years of experience working with one-parent families and our evidence-based knowledge, that it is not the legal structure of a family that is important to a child’s well-being but the substance of the family and the relationships within it. However, lone parents in Ireland continue to experience the highest rates of poverty and it is impoverishment that is proven to adversely affect a child’s future. We will continue in our vital work towards ending disadvantage for lone parents and their children.”

While the report also found that, despite controlling for school context and a variety of background factors, children from never-married one-parent families and cohabiting families did less well in their educational performance, it states that they are also more likely to be attending a disadvantaged – DEIS – school. Education and progression opportunities for parents are a core part of One Family’s work towards breaking the cycle of disadvantage.

The report ‘Growing Up in a One-Parent Family:The Influence of Family Structure on Child Outcomes’ is available to read/download here.

Notes for Editors:

  • 1 in 4 families with children in Ireland is a one-parent family
  • Over half a million people live in one-parent families in Ireland
  • Almost 1 in 5 children (18.3%) live in a one-parent family (Census 2011)
  • There are over 215,000 one-parent families in Ireland today (25.8% of all families with children; Census 2011)
  • 87,586 of those are currently receiving the One-Parent Family Payment
  • Those living in lone parent households continue to experience the highest rates of deprivation with almost 56% of individuals from these households experiencing one or more forms of deprivation (EU-SILC 2011)

About One Family

One Family was founded in 1972 and is Ireland’s leading organisation for one-parent families offering support, information and services to all members of all one-parent families, to those experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and to those working with one-parent families. Children are at the centre of One Family’s work and the organisation helps all the adults in their lives, including mums, dads, grandparents, step-parents, new partners and other siblings, offering a holistic model of specialist family support services. These services include the lo-call askonefamily national helpline on 1890 622 212, counselling, and provision of training courses for parents and for professionals. One Family also promotes Family Day, an annual celebration of the diversity of families in Ireland today, with 10,000 people attending events this year on 19 May (www.familyday.ie). For further information, visit www.onefamily.ie.

Available for Interview

Karen Kiernan, CEO | t: 01 662 9212 or 086 850 9191

Further Information/Scheduling

Shirley Chance, Director of Communications | t: 01 662 9212 or 087 414 8511