A parent support service is set to be put out to tender later this year.

The recommendation for such a service was included in the government’s combined action plan for children and young people, which was first drawn up in 2017 and has since been updated.

The plan was produced following a 2016 Care Inspectorate of Scotland progress review into services for children and young people in the island, as well as an investigation into the management of case files and treatment of users of the children and families services section of the Department of Health and Social Care.

One of the actions in the 2019 version of the plan, debated in Tynwald a year ago, was: ’Consideration should be given to commissioning an independent parent, partnership, advocacy and support service appropriately experienced and skilled at operating within the safeguarding system that would be available to support parents across the safeguarding continuum - and most importantly in the child protection and care processes.’

A progress report now issued says a formal tender process will be undertaken by Manx Care, which is the new operational body for health services following a reform of the DHSC. This is listed as due to take place by December.

The combined action plan is overseen by the Council of Ministers social policy and children’s committee.

Policy and Reform Minister Ray Harmer said that progress had been delayed in some areas of the plan.

He added: ’Due to Covid-19 time pressures, certain timescales have been somewhat impacted, particularly where resources have been otherwise allocated to the pandemic effort.

’Other areas have since been subsumed into the wider Healthcare Transformation Project.’

Another recommendation still to be implemented is a revised and ’strengthened’ complaints procedure at children’s services, which will be updated when the National Health and Care Service Act comes into operation.

The progress report states: ’Complaints processes in the DHSC are being revised and rationalized. Internally the children and families service has strengthened the learning and improvement process from complaints.’

A recommendation that children’s services should also be subject to regular external inspection also remains on the to-do list.

The progress report says external inspection is a ’key delivery requirement’ of the new Manx Care board but commissioning arrangements for the inspection of children’s services ’still have to be established’.