Ombudsman: 22% increase in child complaints
Emily Logan launched her office’s annual report yesterday, and said some agencies were still using the “stock answer of insufficient resources” as a reason for failing to sufficiently provide for children.
“We continue to see more concern for the system than for the best interest of the child and family,” said Ms Logan, adding that there had been less resistance to the recommendations made by her office in specific cases than had previously been the case.
She said a failure to properly communicate with parents often led to unnecessary upset for their children.
“It is a dominant feature of our investigations that, with few exceptions, they highlight a lack of awareness about the impact of civil and public administrative decision-making on the lives of children and families.
“After eight years of investigating the actions of public bodies, it is abundantly clear to me that the core principles of best interests and respect for the views of the child are not being respected systematically in Ireland.”
With the children’s rights referendum due next month, she said: “To date, we have not examined a case where there was a conflict between parent’s rights and children’s rights.”
The report shows that:
* Education accounted for the majority of complaints. The overall proportion of education-based complaints rose from 38% to 47%;
* Complaints relating to health matters fell from 37% to 32%;
* The proportion of complaints linked to justice, housing/planning, and other issues fell.
Within the education sector, 21% of complaints related to the actions of teachers or principals. A similar percentage related to school transport, while 14% were linked to bullying, 12% to issues with special needs and 10% to issues with actions of board of management.
In health, one third regarded children in care, and 23% to adequacy of, and access to, HSE services.
Three quarters of all complaints came from parents, but Ms Logan said a lack of resources meant her office could not deal with complaints linked to social protection payments.
Other issues of concern raised in the report include homeless service provision for children and young people by the HSE and the in camera rule, which Ms Logan said “should not operate in such a way as to frustrate statutory investigations that are carried out in the interests of children and undertaken otherwise than in public”.
Among the case studies in the report is the high-profile case of a secondary school who refused a place for a teenage girl. The report notes that “at the time of publication the school had not issued an apology to the young person in question”.
* Report at www.oco.ie
* Intervention by the ombudsman led the Department of Education to allow a girl with Down’s syndrome enrol for the 2011/12 school year to complete her transition to adult services after her mother expressed worry that her daughter would not be able to complete her two-year Leaver’s Programme in her special school on the basis that she recently turned 18.
* The HSE reviewed a decision not to provide a powered wheelchair to a four-year-old girl who had a diagnosis consistent with cerebral palsy. The ombudsman had found there were no national guidelines for the provision of occupational ther-apy equipment and that local health offices made their own decisions.
* A boy with considerable medical needs and who had in hospital for a significant period of his life was turned down by the HSE for a home care package. The ruling was reversed on ombudsman action.
* The ombudsman raised concerns with the DPP over the issue of access to therapy notes relating to children who have been sexually abused.
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