Minister’s Foreword: Evaluation Report of the Bail Supervision Scheme (BSS)

Minister’s Foreword

I welcome this Evaluation Report of the Bail Supervision Scheme (BSS) and note the very positive findings.

The Bail Supervision Scheme was established by my department with the aim of providing the courts with an alternative for children who were at risk of bail denial. The BSS provides intensive intervention for children’s caregivers to facilitate sustainable change by complying with bail conditions while remaining in the community. The scheme not only benefits the young person and their families, but the whole community.

I wish to acknowledge the work of the Research Evidence into Policy Programmes and Practice (REPPP) within the School of Law in the University of Limerick for conducting this evaluation. The evaluation was carried out by Catherine Naughton, Sean Redmond and Barry Coonan. My grateful appreciation also goes to all who inputted into the evaluation process, especially the families of the children who had been involved in the scheme and the Therapists who work so professionally with the families of the children.

The BSS, led by my department, is a multi-award winning project having received recognition both nationally and internationally. In the Correctional Excellence Awards category at the 2019 International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) conference held in Buenos Aires it received the “Community Corrections Award”. It also received this years “Excellence Through Collaboration” award at the Civil Service Excellence and Innovation Award for its collaborative work. I wish to acknowledge the agencies, statutory and non-statutory bodies, who made this possible. The bodies involved include the Courts, An Garda Síochána, the Probation Service, Oberstown Children Detention Campus, Tusla and, of course, Extern who are commissioned to operate the scheme on behalf of my department.

I am very pleased to note that the evaluation shows the scheme has been successful in meeting its aims in the areas of reducing offending by the children involved in the programme; ensuring greater compliance to the bail conditions laid down by the court as well as ensuring that 85% of those that completed BSS attracted a non-custodial option at their sentencing hearing.

I also wish to highlight the importance that re-engagement by the children, in either education or training, proved to be a very positive influence on ensuring good outcomes.

My department are now looking at progressing plans to expand the scheme and make it available to a larger cohort of children who come before the courts.

Dr Katherine Zappone, T.D.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs