Section 3 of the Child Care Act 1991 imposes a statutory duty on health boards to identify and promote the welfare of children who are not receiving adequate care and protection and to provide child care and family support services. It is, therefore, the cornerstone of the Act upon which its other provisions are built.
To ensure that health boards are adequately resourced to implement section 3 of the Child Care Act and the sixty other sections commenced to date, additional resources totalling £35 million on an annualised basis have been allocated to the building up of the child care services since 1993. This extra funding has facilitated such measures as the creation of over 900 new child care posts, the extension of family support services, the provision of hostels for children out of home and the provision of additional and more specialised residential facilities. These measures provide an integrated approach to child welfare which allow health boards to meet their responsibilities under any of the sixty one sections of the Child Care Act commenced thus far.
While the additional resources provided have led to a dramatic improvement in the ability of the health boards to promote the welfare of children in their areas, I am fully aware that more needs to be done. To this end, the Government recently approved a new child care programme for the years 1996-99, the financial details of which are being examined in the context of the 1997 Estimates.
