Public has ‘unrealistic’ view of what Tusla can do, chief says

The public don't fully understand the work that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, do and can have an "unrealistic" view of what is achievable.

Chief executive of the agency, Fred McBride, said many had a very “black and white” view of child protection and stressed social workers “get it right” in the vast majority of interventions. He would “like more support” from politicians, he added.

Speaking at the publication of the agency’s three-year corporate plan, he said Tusla was now getting 53,000 referrals a year, or one every eleven minutes.

“So that’s a huge volume of activity coming in.” He said the agency had made significant progress since its inception in 2014, when child and family services were separated out from the HSE.

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“There is significant evidence we are preventing children coming into care. The number of children in care has remained steady, despite huge increase in referrals.”

There had been 46 per cent reduction in the number of unallocated cases, he said, from over 9,000 to about 5,000, since 2014.

“We’re not complacent about that. The target is zero.”

Among key targets for the agency is full implementation of its Signs Of Safety programme, where social workers work with families to assess not only risks to children but the strengths within the family, to keep as many children with their families as possible.

‘Challenging approach’

“It’s not a naive approach at all. It’s really quite a challenging approach for families. A lot of it will involve children drawing their own experiences, expressing them in words. When that is shown to a parent, their own child’s expression of how they experience family life, that’s very powerful. There’s no denying that. So, it’s hard work for the families. It’s not a superficial approach at all. It’s very robust.

“We’re trying to get families to come up with their own solutions rather than impose solutions wherever we can. The children take to it as well. Whether the wider public actually understand that it’s early days in explain what this approach is about.”

He said while at a political level, TDs and civil servants “get it” and “support it” he would like sometimes “more support” publicly.

“Of course when something nasty happens to a child there is an emotive response to that . . . That’s inevitable. I absolutely understand and indeed expect that when something goes wrong we will be scrutinised. We are quite happy to be scrutinised and open and transparent. I happy for that conversation to happen and, for the most part, with politicians, that conversation has been constructive.

“In most situations in which we intervene, mostly we get it right. I’m actually pleasantly surprised that we get it right as often as we do.

“But of course there can be times when we get it wrong, especially when you are dealing with balance of judgement, especially when dealing with uncertainty, managing risk...Bear in mind, removing child from potentially difficult home situation is itself fraught with difficulty and danger. The long-term psychological impact on children of separation and loss and grief are not to be underestimated.

“Lots of people could be more supportive publicly . . . We have nothing whatsoever to hide.”