Girls’ placement in secure unit ‘inappropriate’, says report

AN inspection of a secure unit for troubled teenage girls found eight absconded from care over a 10-month period, one for 17 days.

The high number of unauthorised absences prompted the Irish Social Services Inspectorate (ISSI) to recommend individual risk assessments to determine appropriate security levels for each of the girls.

All were resident in Gleann Álainn special care unit, in Glanmire, Cork.

In a recently-published report following an inspection of the unit, last October, the inspectors warn: “Vulnerable young women are sent there for their own protection and the unit cannot provide adequate protection to them if they go missing.”

However, the inspectors said Gleann Álainn had been “largely successful in proving a degree of security that has not, in general, been experienced ... as unduly oppressive.”

The report said disappearance of the girls without permission tended to occur when they were out of the unit, for instance, on visits home, and “did not indicate a lack of security measures within the unit.”

Local gardaí, who are notified of every unauthorised absence, said matters had improved considerably this year.

The ISSI found that Gleann Álainn provides a good standard of care, but the inspectors had two specific areas of concern.

One was inappropriate placement of young people in Gleann Álainn, which according to the “Criteria for the Appropriate Use of Special Care Units” should be used only as a last resort.

For four young people in Gleann Álainn, it was “clearly not a last resort” - given two had never been in care before and two others had only had one foster care placement.

“The care plan for one of them stated explicitly that she was placed in Gleann Álainn because no foster or open residential placement was available. This is not acceptable and the gate-keeping function of the admissions panel needs to be strengthened to prevent inappropriate admissions.”

The ISSI also questioned the use of single separation, where a young person is temporarily separated from her peers to ensure their own safety, that of other young people in the unit and/or the safety of members of staff.

The inspectors said different managers at the unit applied different criteria in sanctioning single separation. They warned: “Given that single separation represents a further restriction on a young person’s liberty it is vitally important that there are robust safeguards preventing inappropriate use of it.”

Despite these reservations, inspectors found the overall standard of care provided was good.