THE IRISH Association of Social Workers has called for appropriate accommodation to be provided for young people in need of care.
President of the association Ineke Durville said social workers did not agree with the current system. Children assessed as needing accommodation often end up using the night-time emergency service because of a lack of appropriate beds, she added.
The call came after Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter told the Dáil that a 16-year-old boy in care was left overnight in an internet café because there was no suitable place to accommodate him. He also said a 17 year old who had been in the care of the State, had been missing for 13 days.
Ms Durville said if a child was assessed and a social worker deemed it necessary to take that child into care, there should be a range of options available to meet that child’s needs.
In reality, a shortage of placements means those options are very limited.
“For example, if a 14 year old in Dublin is deemed to need care at 2pm in the afternoon, the social worker will try to place him,” Ms Durville said.
“She may be ringing and ringing places to find somewhere suitable, but by 6pm she may not have found anywhere.
“Then the child will have to wait in a Garda station until an out-of-hours social worker takes him to emergency accommodation.”
The emergency beds were only available out of hours, she said, and ideally, should only be for a child who walks out of home and into a Garda station at night. In reality, though, they are used for children known to the day services who would be better placed in non-emergency accommodation.
“Social workers do not agree with this situation on principal; there should be suitable accommodation available,” she said.
She acknowledged that it was difficult to find places for some teenagers who were “angry at the world”, but said such children needed specialist care and optimal accommodation.
Placements should be made and accommodation provided based on the individual needs of the child, rather than only looking at value for money, she said.
“If you provide suitable accommodation, there will be times when there are empty beds and if you only consider value for money, you can’t have empty beds,” she said.
“But this is about children’s lives; they are young for a very short period of time and they have to have their needs met or they will be damaged.”
