Hostel system ‘failed’ children in care

CHILDREN going missing, involvement in prostitution and lack of access to formal education are part of a shocking litany of failures revealed by internal Health Service Executive (HSE) documents in relation to children in state care.

A series of reports relating to the care of separated children seeking asylum reveal:

* 13 children went missing over a 12-month period in one hostel contracted by the HSE to provide accommodation.

* In the same hostel, bedroom searches carried out on foot of concerns that some of the girls were involved in prostitution uncovered two laptops and a diary detailing payments.

* Girls were allowed attend all-night vigils in alternative Christian churches. HSE workers subsequently reported child protection concerns in relation to one of the churches.

* There was no round-the- clock social work care in a hostel where young boys had talked about suicide on foot of their asylum applications being rejected.

* Young people had to move into adult accommodation with no transition, very little information about their new homes, and no after-care facility.

Not one of six hostels contracted by the HSE in Dublin to provide accommodation had qualified childcare workers in 2009 and 2010 and very few staff were trained in Children First, the national guidelines for child protection. Most also had very poor staff/child ratios.

None of the hostels were part of the HSE’s registration and inspection process — instead the HSE relied on reports from project workers. The reports — which took more than a year to obtain under Freedom of Information legislation — reveal repeated requests for improvements fell on deaf ears.

There was little support for formal education — young mothers with babies could not return to school because they could not afford creche facilities. Some boys were transferred to adult accommodation nowhere near where they were studying.

The Irish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children said the issue of child protection had been “glaringly” absent throughout the general election campaign. It called on the incoming administration to implement previous commitments, namely:

* A referendum to place children’s rights in the Constitution.

* Place Children First on a statutory footing.

The HSE said hostels are no longer being used to accommodate separated children seeking asylum and minors who were resident in them have been transferred to residential care or foster care settings following the introduction of an Equity of Care policy. The final hostel closures took place just last December.

In relation to permitting children to attend all-night vigils, the HSE said it “complies with the Child Care Regulations with regard to religious upbringing of children in care”.