NO replacement beds have been provided for troubled teenagers requiring secure care following the closure of the state’s main special care unit last year.

SOCIAL care workers are “walking on eggshells” and feel they cannot respond in a normal and natural way to children’s needs due to the increasingly strict guidelines they must adhere to.

A SPECIAL care unit for disturbed children, which was built following a 1998 High Court order to the State authorities, is not designed to meet their needs, the unit’s manager told the court yesterday.

THE country’s only secure facility for troubled teenagers has been severely criticised by State inspectors.