200 care orders sought by child agency

-9,000 children, teens in system have no dedicated social worker

The High Court has sanctioned more than 200 requests from social workers to put “very challenging” children and teens in secure detention units since last summer because other services cannot cope with their needs.

New figures revealed by the State’s social worker service, the Child and Family Agency (Tusla), show 204 of the requests by the body were granted by the courts system in the past 12 months — a rate of more than one case every two days.