An updated action plan to address concerns over how the authorities handle cases where children are at risk will be published in the summer.

That is the pledge from Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas, who came under scrutiny over the progress of an action plan that was first laid before Tynwald last year following critical reports on services for children and young people and an investigation into the management of case files and treatment of services users of the children and families services section of the Department of Health and Social Care.

That plan aimed to address key areas including areas including improvements in the immediate response to children who may be at risk of abuse or neglect.

Last year Mr Thomas pledged to present a progress report to Tynwald by July this year, but Julie Edge (Onchan) raised the issue in the House of Keys on Tuesday.

The minister said a new report would be published in the summer, with it pencilled in for debate at the October Tynwald.

Ms Edge said: ’There are still feelings in families within my constituents, and with other members’ constituency areas, that there has been no improvement.’

She had originally asked what progress had been made with the implementation of recommendations from the initial report into the management of case files, the response to which was incorporated into the action plan.

The minister said delivery of the action plan was being overseen by the Council of Ministers’ social policy and children’s sub-committee.

He added: ’The committee is currently engaged in assessing the feasibility of an independent external assessment of the combined action plan, which envisages a targeted review of the document alongside feedback on the effectiveness of evaluation and monitoring to date.’

When questioned by Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin) about why the report would not be ready for next month’s Tynwald, Mr Thomas said the timescale would allow for ’peer evaluation’ ahead of the debate.

Mr Thomas said: ’In one sense, it would have been great to have everything available for July 1 deadline for July Tynwald, but primarily this is a government report and the report will be available for Tynwald members and the general public a long time before the debate in October.’

The investigation into the way the Department of Health and Social Care’s children and family services division managed case files and relationships was prompted by a Tynwald motion in April last 2016.

However, Mr Thomas said that original motion, tabled by former Onchan MHK Peter Karran, had been ’confusing’ and needed to be amended by the government.

The case files involved, he said, had been investigated and were now ’closed off’.

’The combined action plan covers just more than following up those cases,’ he continued. ’It covers everything to do with HR, digital, the way that we organise independent evaluation, the way we do monitoring, the way we change the law.’