€17m care bill for 27 troubled children

The State spent almost €17m last year keeping 27 troubled children in specialised residential care.

In addition, it spent €11,557 per week on six children sent on placement to Northampton in Britain, and €1,997 per week on a single child sent to Boystown in Nebraska.

The cost of sending a child to Oakview Hospital in Kent, a secure child and adolescent hospital, was not available.

The HSE defended the spend on overseas residential care on the basis that it occurred only “in extreme circumstances and under the jurisdiction of the High Court”. The circumstances included a need for specialised child psychiatry and psychology.

Noel Howard, spokesman for the Irish Association of Social Care Workers, said it was “a terrible indictment of the State” that the practice of sending children abroad for care continued.

Ineke Durville, the chairwoman of the Irish Association of Social Workers, said it was “difficult to be critical... when we don’t have the resources in Ireland to cater for these children’s needs”.

However, she said sending children overseas should be an option of last resort.

“For all children, it is better to be near home and family, that is the preferred option,” she said.

Both Mr Howard and Ms Durville said a €17m spend on 27 children in high-support units (HSUs) and special care units (SCUs) seemed large but that staffing costs were the main factor due to the high staff/child ratios required.

The €17m covered the cost of running just five of the State’s 12 HSUs and SCUs, including:

*€5.4m on Ballydowd, Dublin Mid Leinster, a mixed-gender SCU catering for 10 children;

*€3.9m on Crannóg Nua, Dublin North East, a mixed-gender HSU for six children;

*€3m on Rath na nÓg, Dublin North East, a mixed-gender HSU for five children, but which last year catered for four;

*€2.4m on Gleann Álainn, HSE South, an SCU that houses four girls;

*€2m on Coovagh House, HSE West, a mixed-gender SCU that should cater for five, but currently caters for three.

The HSE initially said the running costs for the seven remaining units were unavailable, but later said the budgets for four of the units — Ard Doire, Clodiagh House, and La Nua in the HSE South, and Elm House in HSE West — ranged from €1.05m to €1.45m in 2012. All have a capacity for five children, but none was at full capacity.

Three other HSUs — Lough Mahon, Creag Aran, and Green Meadows Centre — no longer operate.

SCUs are secure units that differ from ordinary residential care. The child is not detained as a result of criminal offences, but is placed under a High Court order.

HSUs offer a residential service to those in need of specialised targeted intervention. They are “open”, in that the young person is not detained.