Beds unfilled at centre for troubled children

TWO-THIRDS of beds at a centre for the State’s most troubled children remain unfilled, but staff and management say huge progress is being made at the troubled facility.

Ballydowd in west Dublin opened more than two years ago in response to stinging criticism from the courts over the lack of a secure care unit for disturbed children.

It had to deal with staff unrest over pay and training, highly critical Government inspectors and a number of mini-riots.

While management has been praised for recruiting staff, increasing wages and introducing changes following a scathing Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) report, the multi-million euro facility is still chronically underused. Only eight of the 24 beds are filled.

“It’s improved in a lot of ways,” said SIPTU’s Raymond O’Reilly But, he added: “There’s a long way to go.” Mr O’Reilly said nearly all staff were now paid “correct” salaries and claimed management had improved recruitment procedures.

An open day was held last year. Mr O’Reilly said: “Management somewhat changed the requirements in terms of experience and skills. They were more flexible in their approach to get suitable staff.”

He said more mature applicants were accepted whose “broader experience is sometimes more useful”.

Last February, staff staged a stoppage following a mini-riot involving a number of the youngsters at the unit. Staff were attacked and furniture was smashed.

The following month, the SSI carried out an announced inspection High staff turnover and soaring sickness rates as a result of assaults and pressure had created an crisis atmosphere which affected the teenagers and left little room for supervision and training of the staff, the report found.

Ballydowd was not providing the teenagers with the services they needed to improve, the SSI report said.

The inspectors are to carry out another inspection to check if their recommendations have been introduced.