Hike in tip-offs to preschool services watchdog

New figures from Tusla show a soaring number of incidents notified to its Early Years Inspectorate and an even more dramatic growth in the number of unsolicited tip-offs made to the pre-school services watchdog.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency’s latest quarterly report also showed another record overall number of referrals to it, with 15,401 made in the second quarter of 2019. That is the highest number for all quarters since Tusla was established at the start of 2014.

The report covers the period July to September and revealed that 101 incidents were notified to the Early Years Inspectorate in that quarter, bringing the number for the first nine months of 2019 to 301 — 65% more than the same period in 2018.

Last July, the RTÉ Investigates: Creches — Behind Closed Doors programme was screened. The Tusla figures show that 214 unsolicited information submissions were received by the inspectorate during the third quarter of last year, 146% more than in the second quarter of last year and the highest number for the period since the start of 2018.

That brought to 439 the number received for the first nine months of 2019, 52% more than the same period in 2018. Three services were removed from the national register in the same period.

Another figure to rise was the number of overall referrals made, this time for the second quarter of last year.

Of the referrals made between April and June last year, 56% were for welfare concerns and 44% were concerns of abuse.

Almost every referral had an initial inquiry carried out, and no further action was advised in 46% of referrals for the period.

The report also shows that at the end of the third quarter of last year, 25,341 cases were open to social work, while 12% of the cases (634) awaiting allocation were categorised as ‘high priority’, although that was the fewest lowest such number for any quarter in almost three years.

There were 981 children listed as ‘active’ on the Child Protection Notification System at the end of last September, according to the report, the second consecutive increase.

There were also 530 referrals to the National Out of Hours Service in the third quarter of last year, another rise, and 147 children were placed by the National Out of Hours Service in the same period.

The report also shows that 1,934 inquiries regarding adoption information and tracing were received in the first nine months of 2019, double the number for the same period in 2018.

As for school absenteeism, Tusla cut the number of screened referrals on a waiting list by 41% between last May and last September.

A total of 6,310 referrals were screened by senior educational welfare officers in the academic year September 2018 to August 2019, 5% fewer than the previous year.