No social worker for 1,000 high risk kids

Almost 1,000 “high-priority” cases involving at-risk children had not been assigned a social worker by the end of last year.

According to the Health Information and Quality Authority’s (Hiqa’s) annual overview report on the inspection and regulation of children’s services in 2015, there is a “significant variation in services” available to children depending on what part of the country they reside.

At the end of 2015, Tusla had 26,655 cases open with 6,718 yet to be allocated a social worker. Of these, 999 were classed as “high priority”.

The Hiqa report found that although high-priority case management had improved since 2014, regional inconsistencies remained in how waiting lists are administered, with some regions performing substantially better than others.

Three child protection and welfare service areas inspected last year also showed up a “considerable disparity” in standards.

The Dublin North and Dublin South East/Wicklow areas complied with just eight out of 27 standards inspected.

However, the Louth/Meath service area met just one out of 27 standards. Hiqa made a judgment of significant risk to children against eight of the standards.

While day-to-day social work practice was found to good in the main, service providers in these three areas had to respond to 62 actions with 24 of those actions coming under the theme of safe and effective services.

These relate to waiting lists and allocation of social workers, delayed notifications to the gardaí in relation to alleged abuses and other issues pertaining to the 1,349 children on the Child Protection Notification System (CPNS).

Consistent delays in assessing children’s needs expose them to unnecessary or unidentified risk.

Head of children’s programme at Hiqa, Ann Ryan said the key lesson from the report was the wide variation in the quality of service provided in different regions.

“What is clear from inspection and monitoring activity is the variance of practice by different providers in relation to the quality of service delivered,” she said.

Director of Empowering People in Care (EPIC) Jennifer Gargan said the report highlighted the need for Tusla to be adequately resource . “Every child and young person in Ireland should have equitable access to services. It should not be a post-code lottery,” she said.

Tanya Ward of the Children’s Rights Alliance said it was “critical” that no child at risk of significant harm is left waiting for a social work intervention.

She said it was “staggering” just one out of 28 standards in the Louth/Meath service area had been met.