To ask the Minister of Health for an update on the roll-out of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust's bail-fostering pilot to other Health and Social Care Trusts.

The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (‘the Children Order’) places a statutory duty on Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need, including those in care. As a Corporate Parent, the HSC Trust assumes the moral and legal responsibility for the wellbeing of a child in its care, including when a child becomes involved in the juvenile justice system.

The Children Order also places specific duties on HSC Trusts to provide accommodation to children in care, eligible individuals who have left care and children for whom a responsible adult cannot provide accommodation. In fulfilling these duties, they must ensure that, when required, a child has somewhere safe to live while on bail, which meets the bail conditions. For those children who are in care, this is often the child’s current placement e.g. foster care or residential home. However, as this cohort of children and young people often have highly complex needs / situations this is not always possible, and the Trust will need to identify an alternative placement which meets the needs of the child. For those children and young people not already in care, they may become looked after so that the relevant HSC Trust can provide them with suitable accommodation while on bail.

The existing bail fostering initiative which has been piloted in the Southern Trust area aims to provide short-term therapeutic foster placements for children remanded to Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre who could not meet their bail conditions due to lack of suitable accommodation being available. The pilot has been relatively successful, and discussions have taken place both within the Fostering Workstream of the Children’s Social Care Services Reform Programme, and between officials of my Department and the Department of Justice, regarding extending this pilot.

The current initiative provides a very specialist placement, which requires skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced foster carers who have both the estate and ability to take on the role. While both Departments of Health and Justice support expansion of the initiative it is acknowledged that it will take time to ensure that further delivery reflects the level of demand for placements and the availability of suitable carers. It is also intended that bail fostering will be included in the Fostering Strategic Plan currently being developed as part of the Children’s Social Care Services Reform Programme, which will inform any future expansion.