Child protection services for north Dublin criticised in report

Serious concerns have been flagged about the safety of child protection services in north Dublin, with some children waiting up to two years for a social worker, by the national health watchdog.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has found over 800 at-risk children in the area without an allocated social worker, a failure to notify suspected abuse to gardaí in a timely manner as well as a failure to respond adequately to potential cases of long-term neglect.

Hiqa conducted an assessment of the child protection and welfare service, operated by Tusla, in north Dublin, between 17th February and 26th February this year.

During the inspection Hiqa staff reviewed 168 children’s case files, met nine children and interviewed social workers, team leaders, management as well as external bodies.

The North Dublin team covers areas in Dublin City and Fingal. Fingal is the youngest and most ethnically diverse county in the State, with a birth rate exceeding the national average. Following a realignment of its boundary in 2013 the population covered by the team is almost 350,000.

The team had received 3,797 referrals in the 12 months prior to this inspection.

The inspectors found the service was “not sufficiently resourced” and “staffing levels were a concern” with 12 vacant social work posts at the time of inspection.

“Insufficient staffing had impacted in children and families. Data provided…showed that there were 808 cases waiting to be allocated a social worker.”

Despite the area being ethnically diverse data were not being gathered on ethnic background of the children referred to it. Nor were staff provided with diversity training as it pertained to child protection issues.

One social work office, which covered a population which was 80 per cent non-Irish nationals, had had a “huge increase in the number of referrals regarding physical discipline”.

“Cultural issues were significant in this area and even though staff had undertaken some training on cultural awareness, it was not sufficient as it did not extend to situations that arose in child protection.”

There were “insufficient resources in place to support children with specific communication needs”.

Many neglect cases were being managed well “and children’s lives had improved from social work and family support interventions”.

“However there were cases that had multiple referrals related to neglect that were dealt with on an incident by incident basis.... The management of cumulative risk for children experiencing long-term neglect was inadequate.

“The impact of long-term harm and neglect on children’s wellbeing was not fully considered by staff.”

In the 12 months up to the time of the assessment, the teams had made 828 notifications to gardaí in the area about suspected or confirmed abuse.

Sometimes notifications were not made until after an initial assessment “despite the fact that physical abuse was reported at the time of the referral”.

“Team leaders and social workers told inspectors that they did not routinely notify all allegations of abuse until this had been validated through the initial assessment.

“Considering the delay in carrying out a number of initial assessments this was not in line with Children First and was not adequate.”

Some 84 children on the child protection and welfare team did not have a family support plan completed. Of these 16 children did not have an allocated social worker, while the 68 that had, had no family support plan on their files.

A review of welfare files found the level of planning varied.

“There was a lack of consistent social work oversight of these plans and this may place children at unnecessary or escalated risk....Long term cases that continued to be re-referred to the service had the potential to drift in and out of services.”

The management of waiting list for initial assessment was “not robust” and “did not ensure children at greatest risk received a timely social work intervention”.

Some children remained on the list for up to two years. “This was not safe and some children were potentially not protected from harm”.

The restructuring of the service in 2013 led to a “dramatic increase in the waiting lists” and despite a prioritisations system being in place “it was not effective as children at risk were not consistently allocated a social worker”.

Staff had been redeployed to prioritise high-risk cases but this meant low and medium risk cases faced longer waiting times.

“This finding raised concerns about the safety of the service.”

In response, Tusla said today it had initiated measures to address concerns.

A waiting list audit had been completed and children and families were being prioritised for allocation based on level of need. Cultural diversity training was being provided. Six additional social workers would be recruited.

An audit of family support plans was underway to address issues such as information deficits and adherence to review timeframes. In addition, training on family support planning is being rolled out, said the agency.