Social workers are to meet with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs next week, because social work students are struggling to get work placements. This struggle is due to a lack of formal arrangements.

The organisation which represents 1,300 social workers has told the Oireachtas its members often enter where others fear to tread - but the delayed release of inspection reports "rains further blows on perhaps already demoralised staff".

The country’s social workers will today call for the urgent reform of the Mental Health Act, claiming that the current laws are not fit for purpose.

Mandatory reporting of child-abuse concerns began yesterday, with children’s rights groups saying it would work, while others, including social workers, expressed misgivings.

Social workers have warned the child protection system is “in no way ready” for the introduction in six weeks time of mandatory reporting of child abuse concerns.

Social workers have warned the child protection system is “in no way ready” for the introduction in six weeks time of mandatory reporting of child abuse concerns.

The Irish Association of Social Workers has called on the Government to establish and fund a statutory social work service for vulnerable adults, amid warnings that many people are allowed to drift into the margins of society with no single agency responsible for their welfare.

The Child and Family Agency has confirmed that the long-awaited Pulse-style system for logging child welfare and protection concerns will be in operation nationwide by the end of 2018.

Four out 10 elderly people have little or no say about their care, it has emerged.

A new report shows acute hospitals and nursing homes are being prioritised over community care for the elderly, at around three times the cost.

Tusla and the HSE will give contradictory accounts of how a teenager with an intellectual disability came to be left with a foster carer, accused of sex abuse, for up to 21 months after children in the foster home were removed for their safety.

WHEN, in 1980, the late Lord Denning made his infamous “an appalling vista” remark, about the integrity of the convictions of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, his great concern, later confirmed, was that a trusted, essential arm of the state — Britain’s Midlands Police — had lied to secure those dishonest convictions.

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Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has defended its record on the retention of social workers following claims that its failure to hold on to experienced staff puts more children at risk of becoming the next ‘Grace’.

This letter is an urgent appeal from 14 organisations who work with children to call on An Taoiseach to show leadership on the issue of child homelessness.

The head of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, said he is “sympathetic” to points of concern raised by social workers in relation to proposed procedures for dealing with allegations of child abuse and neglect.

A document from Tusla, outlining how social workers should respond to allegations of child abuse and neglect, opens the way for an alleged abuser to cross-examine his or her victim.

Children’s rights groups have reacted with concern to the news that a completed review of previously unattended-to child welfare files has found that at least 127 children in Laois/Offaly require immediate intervention.

A survey of social workers has found that most believe direct provision is having a short and long-term impact on children and is also damaging the capacity of adult asylum seekers to parent to their full potential.

A charitable organisation which deals with the perpetrators of domestic violence has said it is “inundated” with referrals, including those from social workers.

There have been calls to urgently lift the public sector hiring freeze so more social workers can be recruited.

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

A leading child protection expert has warned the State could be sued unless it immediately addresses a litany of shocking foster care service abuses.

Child welfare groups last night warned that new watchdog reports indicating foster children were still at risk of being placed in inappropriate settings was a case of “putting budgets before children”.

The new Child and Family Agency to be set up next year will incorporate a range of services, including public health nurses and truancy officers, although its budget has yet to be decided.

A pilot out-of-hours scheme for vulnerable children needing social work care has been used 29 times in seven months in Cork.

Care workers and HSE staff who “blatantly” failed vulnerable young children under their care could face criminal charges.

Social workers have warned that what Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald called a “culture of referring on” will increase if mandatory reporting is made law.

State faces legal action over damning HSE report

The HSE’s staff moratorium and reductions in the staff training budget are being blamed by social care workers for some of the appalling standards of care revealed in the latest inspections of private children’s homes.

An advocacy group for children in care has hit out at social workers for “failing” children following the Irish Examiner’s publication of HSE inspection reports of private children’s homes.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter reiterated that everyone, including priests, were obliged to report child sex abuse and other offences, including white collar crime, to the gardaí, even if they hear about it in the confessional.

More and more children are being taken into care due to families’ problems with drugs and alcohol addiction, according to the Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister.

Social workers in north Dublin say the welfare of their clients could be at risk if a plan to relocate them to a new office is implemented.

THE number of adopted children in care is not known by the HSE, the Department of Health or the Department of Children, despite it being raised as a concern by social workers as far back as 2005.