Minimise the suffering of children, don’t wait for a crisis
While that was the case in the past, hopefully the lesson learned is that neglect can be as much a form of abuse as physical or sexual abuse.
In 2005, in the Galway Mayo Roscommon region, there were 2,051 reports made to the health service on child welfare grounds, as recorded in the Review of Adequacy of Child and Family services report.
Of those, 1,367 were general welfare concerns – not including physical and sexual concerns. Just 76 if these had an initial assessment.
Overall, of the 2,000-plus reports, including sexual and physical abuse, 483 had an initial assessment and 364 were “dealt with on the day”.
Just 49 of those which went for an initial assessment fell under the heading “on-going assessment”.
While everyone understands not every report will be followed through with an assessment, according to Children First guidelines: “An initial assessment should be completed on each child where a decision is made that it is warranted following receipt by the social work department of a report of protection or welfare concerns in respect of a child.”
Furthermore, the guidelines state that an “important objective” of an initial assessment is to determine if further, or more comprehensive assessment, are required and to enable if necessary a plan to be put into place to govern continuing intervention”.
With such heavy caseloads, however, social workers simply cannot take the time to follow up every case, even if they see a reason to.
Over 2004 and 2005 in the same region, 166 cases were notified to a team comprising a principal social worker, senior psychologist, senior medical officer and assistant director of public health nursing.
Of those, 73 were confirmed to be abuse, 24 were inconclusive and just 17 confirmed not be abuse.
The 2005 report further states: “The number of large families and children with complex issues is rising which leads to difficulties in locating placements for children. Treatment foster carers need to be recruited urgently to meet the needs of children where the impact of their abuse is such that it significantly affects the child’s life.”
In the review of adequacy of services for 2008 (the 2009 has not yet been published) there were 1,046 primary reports of abuse. Of those, 423 had an initial assessment and 623 were dealt with on the day.
The final statistics for that year show just 51 children were admitted to care.
How cases are assessed, treated, investigated, escalated and acted upon is of course impossible to glean simply from looking at raw statistics. But the figures suggest that although just a small number of reported cases of abuse and neglect are dropped or considered unfounded, very few result in taking children into care.
While it is right that families are supported in whatever way they can be first, some people are not fit to be parents and leaving children in their care only prolongs a child’s suffering.
Certainly, social workers face obstacles when getting a child into care, none more important than the objection of parents, but surely it is time Irish society woke up to the fact that children aren’t always better off with their natural parents.
Another interesting statistic in the 2008 report is that the highest number of admissions to care came as the result of an emergency order. This suggests that children were left in bad situations so long they had to be removed in an emergency situation.
It’s just not good enough that a crisis point must be reached before a child is taken away from bad parents.
Another pertinent issue which has become apparent since the report’s publication is that health board staff may not have been made aware of where the case stood once it went to the High Court, and progress was hampered by the involvement of a right wing group.
Why did this “ex parte” order seem to throw the legal team, surely experienced solicitors in the field? Or was it that they did not communicate properly with colleagues in the west.
While social workers are not expected to be legal experts, it is unfortunate that no one sat down and explained to them exactly what was going on and what their rights and responsibilities were.
Social workers are often scapegoated in cases like this, but perhaps what’s at fault is the level of assistance and support they are afforded by the system.
