Warning over rise in ‘culture of referring on’

Social workers have warned that what Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald called a “culture of referring on” will increase if mandatory reporting is made law.

Provision for mandatory reporting has already been included in the heads of the Children First Bill 2012 and is likely to be a central plank in how the State reacts to concerns over child welfare.

Yesterday, Ms Fitzgerald told the joint Oireachtas committee on health that various elements of child and family services needed to change: “We have this culture in Ireland of just referring on.

“It is not just about referring on to the child protection social worker.”

Ineke Durville of the Irish Association of Social Workers said mandatory reporting would lead to more cases being referred on and requiring assessment.

“When you get the mandatory reporting, that referring on culture will increase,” she said. “The quantity of the work might stop people doing things at an early intervention level.”

She said unless resources were increased, social workers would be “snowed under with referrals that are not always necessary”.

An advocacy group for young people in care has said that if we don’t want a similar review of child deaths in 10 years’ time, children must be taken into care more quickly “before they suffer years of abuse”.

“While there have been improvements in social worker allocation and record keeping, children still aren’t being taken into care quickly enough. These cases need to be identified more quickly. Such timely intervention is important to ensure that cases don’t escalate and children suffer more trauma,” said Jennifer Gargan, the director of Empowering Children in Care.

The group also joined the chorus of calls for aftercare supports to be resourced and put on a legislative footing.

Ms Gargan said: “Currently in North Dublin there is an extensive waiting list for aftercare supports, with over 100 people waiting to receive aftercare supports earlier this year. Some areas such as Carlow and Kilkenny do not have any aftercare support at all. Care cannot end at 18.”