Pressure on services forces Barnardos to close referrals list

BARNARDOS, the children’s charity, has had to close some of its waiting lists to new referrals until after Christmas because of pressure on services.

The charity warned that because of stressed public services more children and families are being referred to Barnardos.

This in turn is creating increased waiting lists, particularly for families who have not been referred by social services. In some areas waiting lists are stretching to eight months due to limited resources, the charity said.

The stark announcement was made as part of an overall appeal from the Saving Childhood group set up in the aftermath of the Ryan Report, comprising Barnardos, CARI, Children’s Rights Alliance, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, ISPCC, One in Four and RCNI.

The alliance said funding cuts to charities helping children and families are causing the closure and reduction of fundamentally important community services and community development programmes across the country. It said any further cuts next year would devastate services and called for budgets to be protected in 2011.

A spokesman for Barnardos said many staff are reporting that the cases presenting are increasingly complex, and with fewer opportunities of referring to appropriate services, they are increasingly worried about the outcomes for children in both the short and long term.

The Irish Association of Young People in Care (IAYPIC) said a number of key workers had contacted the organisation concerned about the withdrawal of funding for counselling for young people leaving care.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) said its grant from the HSE has been frozen for the past five years with a reduction of 8.5% in the grant received over the past two years.

In order to continue with the services on the reduced grant salaries and increments have been frozen with cuts of 3%, 5% and 10% for 2009 and 2010, a spokesman said.

One in Four said that to remain solvent it has had to impose pay cuts of 10%-15%; suspend the employer contribution to pensions and create two redundancies.

“The main statutory funding provider is the HSE, contributing 60% of running costs. HSE funding was cut by 5% in 2009 and a further 5% in 2010. We have not yet been informed of our 2011 allocation. It will not be possible to maintain our current levels of service with further cuts,” One in Four said.