Child services chief attacks culture at HSE

THE HSE’s new child services supremo has said the agency’s crisis intervention skills “lacked credibility” and also questioned whether current child death reviews were too broad.

Scotsman Gordon Jeyes, appointed in December as the HSE’s first national director of children and family services, also said the provision of aftercare should be obligatory, but also needed to be used where it was most required and where resources allowed.

Speaking about his new role, in which he will be a key player in the transfer of child protection from the HSE to a new agency as part of new Government plans, he said: “The buck stops with me.”