Record number of complaints made to Ombudsman for Children

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, must get better at responding to complaints about its care of children, the Ombudsman for Children has said.

Niall Muldoon, speaking at the publication of his office's 2015 annual report, also said the autonomous power of schools needed to "recalibrated" to ensure children's rights were upheld.

His office dealt with 1,639 complaints last year, which is the highest in its 11-year history and an increase of 8 per cent compared with 2014. Of these complaints, 25 per cent related to child and family support, care and protection, making it the second largest category after education, to which 45 per cent of complaints related.

“In dealing with these complaints, we experience repeated and significant delays by Tusla. Responding to complaints hasn’t been a priority for Tusla and it needs to be.”

The delays, often of months, were “unfair” on children, he said.

The main complaints were about Tusla’s handling of child protection concerns, child protection services, inadequate planning for children leaving care, and family support and social work services.

Mr Muldoon said Tusla’s complaints mechanism was under-resourced and needed to stop being, “an add-on to someone else’s job... We have raised this issue with Tusla and intend to monitor it closely as it is unfair to children and others that come to us with their complaint.”

The Office of the Ombudsman for Children (OCO) has seen the number of complaints increase steadily since it opened in 2004. when it received 94 complaints,

Complaints related to education comprised 45 per cent of those received last year. Among these were about schools’ handling of alleged professional misconduct, their handling of bullying, exam results and accommodations, expulsion, suspension and enrolment.

“It is my view that the autonomy afforded to Irish schools means Government has been unable to exercise necessary oversight,” said Mr Muldoon.

He cited the example of a child whose carers applied to more than 20 schools for a place, without success.

Mr Muldoon said in such instances, the Department of Education must be able to step in and designate a school for a child.

“It is time to recalibrate the balance between the autonomy of schools and the oversight by Government to protect children’s rights.”

Fourteen per cent of complaints were about health services – up from 11 per cent in 2014 - including mental health services and services for children with disabilities.

Mr Muldoon raised particular concerns about the treatment of young people detained by the criminal justice system, saying the “culture” needed to move away from one of punishment to one of support, positive intervention and care.

Ongoing delays with the redevelopment of a new juvenile detention centre at Oberstown in north Dublin meant 17-year-olds sentenced by the courts were still being held in the adult Wheatfield prison.

For the past four years Wheatfield, held between 10 and 14 young people at a time . Those aged 17 and on remand, or aged under 17, are held in Oberstown.

“This is a form of discrimination which is absolutely indefensible and I call on the Government to redouble its efforts to ensure that the Oberstown campus is fit to receive all 17-year olds, whether on remand or sentenced, as soon as possible,” said Mr Muldoon.

He welcomed the pledge from Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald that legislation allowing children in direct provision – or those advocating for them - to bring complaints to his office, would be introduced in November.