The commitment towards improving outcomes for all children who are in care is deeply rooted in the sector of child care. All those who have a contribution to make in this sphere would like to be further empowered to improve the service and have much to say about how this can be achieved. The views of children and young persons receiving the service or who have been in care can also point the way forward towards improving the strengths of the service and addressing the most pressing difficulties and gaps in out-of-home child care.

This widespread commitment to overcoming the challenges in the provision of out-of-home care has led to the demand for establishing agreed national standards of care and for the deve-lopment of common policies and procedures. In this climate, it was not difficult for the Department for Social Welfare Stand-ards to form an effective working group in order to draw up National Standards of Residential Child Care. All stakeholders were represented on the working group. They included those responsible for the provision of the service, child care staff, service users and their families. The combined perspectives of those who were actually providing the service and of those who were receiving it gave a clear picture of the real day-to-day experiences of living in care.

The working group has compiled draft national standards of care which are aimed at improving the quality of life of service users by raising the level of care and support they receive. The standards explain to service users what to expect from care services. They will enable those who run care homes to find out what is expected of them in offering support and care services.

Standards provide a basis for common understanding when care is being discussed. The standards allow a comparison between the present situation and the desired one. They enable practitioners in the sector to identify the factors that hinder the achievement of desired objectives and may indicate what is required to improve the service. In fact, during the process of the drafting of the standards, the working group also drew up a list of gaps in the service provision that need to be addressed if the implementation of the standards is to succeed. The standards can also be used to monitor or evaluate the quality of services.

The Department for Social Welfare Standards recognises the need to seek the views of all stakeholders. A national conference will be held tomorrow in order to launch the consultation process on the draft standards. All interested persons are welcome to attend. It is hoped that there will be a generous participation in the consultation process to ensure a positive contribution from stakeholders. In this manner, the final version of the standards of care will be one that incorporates all relevant feedback.

The national conference will also be the occasion for the launching of model policies and procedures for out-of-home care. These were drawn up by a ministerial working group that consisted of key professionals in the area of service provision. These policies and procedures have been drawn up to serve as model tools that can make service delivery more professional. They are based on policies and procedures that are already in use and are examples of good practice that professionals will find useful.

(The national conference will be held at Vassalli Hall, Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta between 9.15 and 11.15 a.m.)

Ms Muscat Azzopardi is research officer at the Department for Social Welfare Standards' Research and Standards Development Unit.

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