An Evaluation of the Identification of Need (ION) Process in Sligo/Leitrim and Donegal

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Child Care Act some 20 years ago in Ireland, there has been considerable expansion and development in child and family services. Despite this positive move, some of the primary criticisms of service provision have been that there is an uncoordinated, incoherent strategy for integrated working, resulting in a failure to deliver timely support to families, a lack of clarity concerning roles, bureaucratic delay and inappropriate interagency referral. The development and subsequent piloting of the Identification of Need (ION) model in Sligo/Leitrim and Donegal has occurred against this backdrop. It was designed to respond to many of these key inadequacies in existing service provision. Given this, the overarching aim of this evaluation study was to assess the effectiveness of ION as a model of early intervention for children and families and to capture the learning from the pilot phase.