HEALTH AUTHORITIES are paying up to €420,000 a year on private residential placements for individual children in care, new figures show.
Unpublished Health Service Executive figures show a total of just over €135 million was spent on residential placements for about 400 children in the care of the State during 2007. Of this, some €30 million was spent on just over 100 children in privately-operated facilities around the State.
Most were placed in care for welfare reasons such as being subjected to neglect by parents or to physical, emotional or sexual abuse in the home.
A breakdown of the figures show that one private care placement in Waterford cost an estimated €420,000 for just one child. In contrast, five care placements for children in the public system in the same region cost a total of €402,000.
Despite the cost of care, studies indicate that about half of staff who work with children in residential care do not have any relevant qualification.
Recommendations have been made to the Government in a series of reports dating back almost 35 years which emphasise the importance of training for social care workers in residential childcare.
For example, the Kennedy Report (1970) said it was a “fallacy” to believe staff with appropriate skills could adequately care for emotionally unsettled and disturbed children.
These flaws in the social care system have been documented by groups such as Focus Ireland, which has found that as many as two-thirds of young people leaving the care of the State experience homelessness within two years.
More than half of these young people ended up leaving care because of a crisis, such as their placement breaking down, according to research.
The HSE figures also show that 13 per cent of children in care do not have an allocated social worker to support their care, in breach of national standards for children in care.
In some parts of the country about half of children do not have a social worker. The rates are lowest in Louth (58 per cent are not allocated a social worker), Sligo/Leitrim (49 per cent) and Wicklow (43 per cent).
The HSE said that where there are difficulties in assigning a social worker to a family because of heavy workloads, social workers are assigned based on a “needs assessment and prioritisation”.
Social workers, however, say this is placing children at risk and an indication of the underfunding of child protection services.
Overall HSE policy is to decrease the use of residential placements where possible and to prioritise the use of foster care placements. However, funding on residential care increased by almost €10 million between 2006 and 2007.
Most social workers agree that children have better outcomes when placed in foster care. However, significant numbers of young remain in residential care due to a wide range of issues such as behavioural problems or a child’s specific needs.
The figures are based on statistics compiled from the HSE’s local health offices for 2007, but which have not yet been signed off or published.
Of almost 5,000 children in care in 2007, the vast majority are in various forms of foster care with relatives or foster parents.
The cost of foster placements in 2007 was €98 million. The cost has been rising in recent years, in line with the HSE policy of prioritising foster care.
A further €82 million was spent on family support services, aimed at providing an earlier response to families in crisis. This has increased by almost 80 per cent in the space of five years, underlining a greater policy focus on preventive measures in child welfare services.
