The evolution of children's services in Ireland and prospects for the future: a personal perspective
| Pages | 71-80 |
| Published date | 01 December 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200700037 |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Author | Owen Keenan |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
71
Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 2 Issue 4 December 2007
© Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd
Preamble
Ireland is now the hub of much activity around children’s services – at central and local government
levels, involving the primary statutory and voluntary agencies, and engaging some of the more
disadvantaged communities. Previous articles in the series have looked at the origins and work of the
government Office of the Minister for Children, which is overseeing the reform programme (Langford,
2007), the role of $200 million philanthropic investment in this work (Little & Abunimah, 2007) and how
the new approach is translating into practice in local communities (Zappone, 2007).
Here, Owen Keenan, former Chief Executive of Barnardos1, offers his personal perspective on the
work. He starts by tracing how Ireland moved from having under-developed services and limited suitable
research capacity to having the potential within the next 10 years to become one of the best places in
the world for children to grow up in. He highlights the roles played by international collaborations,
indigenous advocacy (focused on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) and philanthropic
investment in helping to usher in a new paradigm of evidence-based, outcome-focused services. He
then outlines the main challenges as he sees them if the potential is to be realised – for example,
improving relationships between stakeholders and strengthening service design and evaluation
capacity. Finally, he summarises what has been learnt about undertaking (and undergoing) such far-
reaching change processes.
1Director,
Middlequarter,
Dublin, Ireland
Introduction
Those readers who have been following this series of
articles will by now have an appreciation of the
extensive programme of development of children’s
services that is underway in Ireland, together with the
policy and funding context which underpins it. But
how did this come about? What are the prospects for
the future? And what can be learned from the
experience? In this final article in the series I offer a
personal perspective in attempting to answer these,
and other, questions. To begin with, though, I think it
is appropriate to give a brief opinion on the stage of
development we have reached.
Very broadly, I believe that we are at the cusp of
potentially very exciting and groundbreaking
developments for children and young people in
Ireland. Economic growth, strategic policy
The evolution of children’s
services in Ireland and
prospects for the future:
a personal perspective
Owen Keenan1
This is the fourth and last in a series of articles by policy-makers, philanthropists and
community activists about the reforms to children’s services in Ireland.
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