HSE failing troubled youths in care

HSE special care units are failing more than half of the troubled children who have been placed there, according to a report which raises serious questions about the HSE’s capacity to help vulnerable young people in care.

A study for the now defunct Children Acts Advisory Board for the first time tracked the fortunes of children referred to special care units and whether or not the placements succeeded in reducing the risk factors they faced.

It paints a grim picture of children engaged in criminal activity and homelessness from a young age and found in a significant percentage of cases that such behaviours had worsened or developed.