Tusla handled almost 70,000 referrals last year despite pandemic impact

Tusla chief executive Bernard Gloster: 'The continuation of the impact of Covid-19 into 2021 is a concern for us all.' File picture: Larry Cummins

Tusla has said 2020 was a "very challenging year", with almost 70,000 referrals made and its chief executive saying efforts are continuing to move its services from "crisis to normal" in the context of the Covid-19 response. 

Tusla launches its latest annual report on Friday, showing there were almost 1,000 health and safety issues involving its staff last year, 883 of which related to violence, harassment or aggression.

Tusla's National Incident Management System (NIMS) also saw the highest ever annual number of incidents recorded, at 1,830, with those incidents notified to the State Claims Agency.

69,712 referrals

Tusla received 69,712 referrals last year, much higher than the 56,561 referrals to child protection and welfare services in 2019, but Tusla said the latest annual figure reflected a new and improved methodology for capturing all child protection and welfare referrals made to it, including those that may require family support services.

There were 22,356 children in receipt of family support services last year, while 5,882 children were in care at the end of 2020, 91% of whom were in foster care. There were also 2,943 young people receiving aftercare support and the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) worked with 5,372 children, despite the truncated school year.

In his foreword, chief executive Bernard Gloster said "the continuation of the impact of Covid-19 into 2021 is a concern for us all but, as can be seen from our account of 2020, it will not limit us in the provision and growth of services to the children and families who need us to be there for them."

The report outlines how staff had to adapt to socially distanced ways of working, including with children in care and those who were the subject of welfare and protection concerns.

The report said 4,210 Early Years Services were registered and that last year there were 774 notifications of incidents – "a significant increase from 2019 (403), which reflects the duty of registered providers to early years services to report outbreaks of Covid-19 in addition to a range of other incidents."

647 formal complaints

The report shows 647 formal complaints were received, more than 17% of which related to behaviour or attitude and another 10% to "insufficient service". However, the report said positive feedback to Tusla services had increased by 187.5% last year.

In addition, there were 362 personal data breaches notified to the Data Protection Commissioner and 984 health and safety incidents, the vast majority of which were related to violence/harassment and aggression, with 38 reported to the Health and Safety Authority.

Tusla's expenditure in 2020 was €841.4m.