Social workers push for better child protection

SOCIAL workers will today launch a 10-point discussion document they believe should form the basis of an overhaul of child protection services.

In addition to voicing concerns over the new standardisation process being planned by the HSE for child protection cases, the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) will also highlight other areas it believes will improve the lot of families around the country.

The Call for Change document includes calls for:

* Social work departments to provide early intervention and preventative services alongside adequate community support services.

* Prioritising relationship-building and direct work with children and families.

* Comprehensive supports for children in care, including an allocated social worker for every child in the care system and supported placements.

* Full and adequate aftercare for all children leaving care at the age of 18.

The document also claims that many social workers do not receive adequate supervision and the quality of the supervision is “sometimes poorly equipped to deal with the multiple issues involved in the job”.

Speakers at today’s launch are also expected to focus on the HSE’s planned Standardised Business Process model in Children and Families Social Work.

The Irish Examiner reported claims yesterday by the IASW that the form-filling and data-gathering process involved does not differentiate between sexual abuse carried out by members of a child’s family, or by a non-family member, and does not have an area in which to include a child’s date of birth.

The IASW said: “These concerns were expressed to both the HSE, during the consultation process for the model, and to the then minister for children, Barry Andrews.

“However, these concerns were evidently not taken into consideration in the finalising of the model.”

The IASW said children and families social workers had “a deep concern that this new model, being promoted by the HSE and Government, is merely replicating the current UK system — upon which it is almost entirely based, which will lead to an overloaded system of bureaucratic, micro-managed, form-filling office work, something which has clearly been borne out by the evidence from the UK”.

It said it had resulted in workers spending up to 80% of their time on bureaucratic office-based work.

The HSE has countered these claims and said it would be working with frontline staff to improve services, and that the National Child Care Information System is still in the development stages.