Family asks for no review of child’s death in care

THE family of one of the 37 children who died while in HSE care has contacted the executive asking that the death not be reviewed.

The man appointed by the HSE to oversee the collation of the number of child deaths known to the HSE and social services, Bernard Gloster, said he had been contacted directly by the family and that they had made the request.

He made his comments during a meeting of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee yesterday.

The deaths are to be reviewed by an Independent Review Group and Mr Gloster said the HSE was “looking at every option to provide as much information as possible” without compromising privacy issues.

But he said: “I know I have been contacted by one of the families of the 37, that the matter be left stand and not reviewed.”

At a meeting on March 4, the PAC was given information that 20 children died in care in the past decade, which ultimately proved to be incorrect. It was recently revealed that 37 children had died while in care.

Laverne McGuinness, national director in the HSE’s Finance and Performance Management section, said she “did not knowingly or intentionally provide inaccurate information to the committee” in March.

She told the PAC the figure of 20 originated from a response to a request from the Health Information and Quality Authority in February last year, where an original figure of 21 was revised when it was established that one of those deaths was of a young adult.

However, six days after that meeting in March, HIQA published new guidance in relation to the deaths of children in care, and Minister for Children Barry Andrews requested information on child deaths across three categories.

She said the difference in figures was due to additional deaths in the past year, the inclusion of deaths from natural causes, and two accidental and one drug-related death which were validated using the more precise definitions.