Statement

WEIR CALLS FOR ACTION ON MISSING CHILDREN FROM CARE   

Posted on: June 2, 2009

“I welcome the opportunity to debate this important topic in the Assembly. It is disappointing that the Health Minister has not taken the time to attend the debate, but nevertheless I hope that his department will listen to what is said in the debate and take action. Every year many children go missing, and from the scant statistics that are recorded a disproportionate number of them are children who abscond from residential care. These children are often lead astray into crime, underage drinking, drugs and sexual exploitation. This damages society in general, as many people become victims of crime and anti-social behaviour, but the greatest damage is often done to the children themselves. 

It is shocking that there is currently no duty on the Department to record statistics on the number of children missing from care, and unless we produce robust monitoring and statistics how can we hope to work out the nature of the problem and begin to solve it. Where action has been taken, for example, in the multi agency approach of the Eastern Health Board, it is not replicated throughout the other Boards. Yet again within our Health Service, we have a lack of joined up thinking and a lack of adoption of best practise. There was much good work in the recent report “Our Children Our Responsibility”. It is time that the Department took action to implement it, and better protected some of the most vulnerable in our society.”