Abused children to gain from time deal

SHORT-STAFFED social worker teams are to be given more time to help children who have been sexually or physically abused, under a strategy agreed between unions and health boards.

Up to 2,000 children have not been allocated social workers due to staffing and retention difficulties in the Dublin area, but under an agreement announced yesterday by trade union IMPACT, staff will spend more time working with children and less time attending court hearings.

Health board officials will now have to explain to judges the absence of accommodation, social work shortages or the availability of specialist services.

The overhaul of the service, by IMPACT and the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA), will give senior social workers more authority and autonomy in the Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow regions.

It will ensure child protection emergencies such as sex abuse, abandonment, physical injury, homelessness and serious neglect will be dealt with on the day of referral.

The procedures were introduced following months of negotiations between unions and the ERHA, which represents three health boards in the greater Dublin area.

IMPACT’s Gerry Dolan said there were no immediate plans to enter talks with other health boards to extend the agreement countrywide.

However, he expected unions and health boards outside the ERHA to take a lead from the measures.

Mr Dolan said the agreement also recognised severe recruitment difficulties and staff retention problems along with resource limitations and increasing caseloads.

“This initiative means better child protection services and goes some way towards easing the massive pressures on social workers,” he said.

In recent years, he said, there were on average about 200 vacancies for social workers in the ERHA catchment area which was about half the number of allocated posts.

“An adequate service for children at risk cannot be provided without a full complement of social workers,” he said. “The new procedures recognise the reality of staff shortages and seek to minimise risk and maximise quality within those constraints.

“We also achieved an honest recognition by the ERHA of the crisis situation which exists in some areas of the city and the incredible pressure faced by social work teams.” The chief executives of the three area health boards said they were intent on tackling the professional development needs of social workers in a systematic way. The ERHA and the area boards have developed a Regional Childcare Frameworko devise solutions to the continuing difficulties in the service.