No social worker hired three months after shortages criticised

Three months after an Ombudsman’s report found children at risk in Cork City and county were being let down by under-resourced social services, not one new social worker has been drafted into the area.

The investigation, which was published by the Ombudsman for Children, found the HSE did not do all it could to protect children in Cork’s North Lee catchment area. The report identified serious deficits, including it taking three to seven months for a social worker to be allocated to cases.

A month later, a Hiqa report into social work services around the country found that children in the same catchment area, which extends from Ballyvourney to Youghal, and covers Macroom, Midleton, and Cobh, as well as the city’s northside, were not being assigned a social worker for more than a year.

“There are significant delays for those children at a medium-to-low risk of harm or neglect,” the Hiqa report warned. “The system in place does not facilitate timely child protection and the formulation and review of important child protection plans.”

Responding to concerns about the North Lee area, the HSE was asked for an immediate review of the current referral rate to North Lee. However, social work staff in the area have said that such data was in their hands already.

For years, social workers have been complaining about their onerous caseloads, with a quarter of all social work posts in the country now vacant because of the non-replacement of staff on maternity leave and retirements. They have also warned that they are suffering hugely because of staff shortages in the area of social care workers, family support workers, and administrative staff.

However, what constituted a ‘manageable caseload’ had never been agreed between social workers and the HSE. Under the direction of the new Child and Family Agency, a working group is now in place to determine these baselines.

It is hoped that these new standards will be published in the coming six months. Up to 1,400 social worker positions are sanctioned in this country but more than 300 are not filled at present, even though the staff hiring moratorium does not apply to them.

Impact trade union, which represents social workers, has repeatedly warned that the shortage of social workers is undermining the State’s statutory obligation to protect children and threatens to thwart the effectiveness of the new Children and Families Agency.

The HSE did not comment last night.