Vetting of childcare staff grossly inadequate, warns ISPCC
The group made its comments after the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) annual report revealed that no garda checks were carried out on certain staff employed in nine of 22 health board-managed residential care centres visited last year. In seven more, checks were only made after the jobs were offered.
“The situation in relation to vetting of staff is unsatisfactory and needs urgent attention,” the report concluded. The SSI, since it was set up in 1999, has inspected 70 of the 101 health board homes.
The ISPCC called on the Government to act immediately on the issue. “Vetting procedures are grossly inadequate in comparison with the systems in the UK,” said chief executive Paul Gilligan.
“The ISPCC has been campaigning for the introduction of adequate vetting procedures for two years and while there have been some developments in the area, many people wishing to work with children on a professional and voluntary basis are still not vetted in an appropriate manner.”
Mr Gilligan said the charity intends to organise a nationwide petition in the summer unless Justice Minister Michael McDowell lays down clear vetting procedures for those working in the childcare industry.
The group issued the warning following the latest SSI report, whose authors praised the “overall warmth and care shown by staff in the majority of care centres”. While warning that the vetting issue needs to be addressed, the SSI also expressed serious concern about the number of younger children in residential care.
Inspectors reported their concerns that the proportion of children under the age of 12 in residential care had risen from 26% to 41% in just one year. This was due to the lack of foster places and the need to keep siblings together.
Concerns were once again raised about two special care units, where the State’s most disturbed children are housed on foot of a court order. The availability of psychiatric services had reached a crisis level, particularly for 16-18 year-olds.
There are also problems over the turnover of staff. More than half the managers of the 22 centres were not full-time appointments or were only operating in an ‘acting’ capacity.
