104 staff at care units racked up 14,000 sick days
The figures for the 104 people represent an average of almost 45 days’ sick leave per staff member each year.
Although the HSE has promised that reforms are under way in the units, many staff members are constantly on sick leave at a significant cost.
The figures show that 20 staff in the three units, which together provide about 17 places for troubled teens, were on leave at the end of Dec 2011 — nine in Ballydowd, Dublin; eight in Gleann Álainn, Cork; and four in Coovagh, Limerick.
Last year, agency staff used at the three centres cost just short of €3m. The bulk of the costs were in relation to Ballydowd, which employed 70 last year.
According to the HSE, Ballydowd employs a core group of agency staff to replace people who have left or who are on long-term leave. Gleann Álainn spent €738,361 on 48 agency staff in 2011.
It is understood many of the days account for staff being out on long-term sick leave because of stress, assaults, and other incidents.
According to their most recent inspection reports, there were 24 full-time staff in Gleann Álainn; 49 in Ballydowd, including one acting director, two acting deputy directors, one unit manager, one acting unit manager, and two acting deputy unit managers; and 31 full-time staff in Coovagh.
* In 2011, staff at Ballydowd took 2,884 sick days. In 2010, the figure was 2,542, and in 2009, 1,519;
* In Gleann Álainn during 2011, staff were out for 1,297 days. The figure in 2010 was 1,242 and in 2011 it was 1,056;
* Staff at Coovagh took 909 days in 2011, 1,897 in 2010, and 980 in 2009.
Last December, Gleann Álainn, which houses girls, was deemed to be “in a state of crisis” by inspectors who found “extremely high-risk behaviour” and a team of people not confident or proficient with child protection concerns. The report concluded that the people in care did not receive a “consistently good standard of effective, safe care”.
At the time, Gordon Jeyes, the HSE’s national director of children and family services, said the practice of using agency staff was going to end. However, with the moratorium on recruitment still in operation, it remains to be seen if this promise will be realised.
Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald and the HSE have signalled their commitment to the provision of special care services.