€14k a week to keep a child in care
The weekly cost of keeping a child in care in a HSE-run home such as a special care unit (SCU) is €5,000, almost €10,000 less than using a private contractor.
Yet inspection reports of HSE-run homes for troubled children show they have spare bed space and are almost never occupied to capacity. Inspection reports of SCUs recently published by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) show three SCUs — Gleann Álainn in Cork, Coovagh House in Limerick, and Ballydowd in Dublin — are not fully occupied. Ballydowd in Lucan, a custom-built 24-bed unit open since 2000, and now deemed unfit for purpose, has never housed a full complement. Staff recruitment and retention are recurring problems.
A former worker within private childcare services, who did not wish to be named, said the cost of providing private residential single occupancy services to a youngster was €14,000 per week in 2007. He said 70% of the cost went on staff salaries because the children in question required two to three staff around-the-clock. Double occupancy (a house where two children were cared for) cost approximately €9,000 per week.
John Byrne, a lecturer in social care practice at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) said, while he agreed there were children who required individual care, he “couldn’t see any reason” why the HSE couldn’t provide its own single occupancy services. “For instance, in Ballydowd, at times there have been as few as three children in what is effectively three eight-bed units. Surely one of those units could have been used for single occupancy? If there are empty beds in the public system, why is the HSE contracting private beds at exorbitant costs?”
Ineke Durville, president of the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW), said single occupancy was “very often expensive” and involved separating children from their peer group, which she said could be “quite isolating” for them.
However, sometimes behavioural problems were so severe, that even three or four children housed together posed problems, particularly if staff weren’t properly trained, or if back-up services were poor, or if there was over-reliance on agency staff.
Ms Durville questioned whether the SCUs had ever been properly resourced. “It was done very quickly, when they were set up originally, and, while some support services were put in, the service is not consistent, there is no consistency of staffing. The motives were good, but what may need to be looked at is how can the services be enhanced so they can take in more children.”
Noel Howard, spokesman for the Irish Association of Social Care Workers (IASCW) said if the Government was “really interested” in the welfare of children in care it would put in the resources instead of overseeing a system that was “understaffed, under resourced and rife with sick leave and assault leave”.
Approximately 400 children are in HSE residential care at a yearly cost of approximately €100 million.
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