Out-of-hours social work service ‘too restrictive’

Tusla’s long-awaited after- hours and weekend social work service is “too restrictive” and needs to be expanded, according to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).

It says children, especially those in care, and professionals working with children, should be able to directly access social workers at night and weekends without going through the Gárda Siochána.

At present, all emergency calls for social work help must be made to the gardaí, who then either contact a national social work call centre or local on-call social workers, depending on where in the country the caller is ringing from.