Big rise in number of children placed in out-of-hours service by Tusla 

Out-of-hours service is a crisis intervention and Tusla is focusing on retaining a panel of foster carers in different parts of the country so they can respond to children who quickly need a special type of foster placement. File picture: Alamy/PA

The number of children placed in out-of-hours service by Tusla jumped 22% in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2020.

The latest figures, contained in the Child and Family Agency's quarterly report for the period April to June, shows 179 children were placed by the national out-of-hours service in that period, bringing the number of children placed for the first six months of 2021 to 319, compared to 262 in the same period last year.

A total of 681 referrals were made to the national out-of-hours service in the second quarter of this year, bringing the number for the first six months of 2021 to 1,162, up 5% on the same period last year.

Both numbers are the highest for any quarter since the start of last year, as is the number of nights’ accommodation supplied by the service, which in the second quarter of this year stood at 1,390.

The out-of-hours service is a crisis intervention and Tusla's chief executive Bernard Gloster has said in recent weeks that the CFA is focusing on retaining a panel of foster carers in different parts of the country so they can respond to children who quickly need a special type of foster placement.

The figures contained in the latest quarterly report – which states that some data is incomplete due to the impact of the cyberattack – shows a slight rise in the number of approved foster carers at the end of last June, but still 82 fewer than at the same point last year.

The report also shows an increase in demand for services or interventions in other areas.

Education support service

The Tusla education support service had 5,398 referrals screened by senior educational welfare officers for the 10 months September 2020 to June 2021 – 1,022 (23%) more than the same period in the previous academic year (4,376).

There were 2,458 screened referrals on a waiting list at the end of last June, more than double the comparative number a year previously.

The service worked with 5,257 individual children in that 10-month period, a similar number to the corresponding period in 2019/2020, but 98 school attendance notices were issued – 69% fewer than the same period in the previous academic year.

No court summonses relating to consistent absenteeism from school were issued for the 10-month period, versus 78 in the corresponding period in 2019/2020, indicating the impact of school closures over the past academic year.

Also relating to schooling, 1,588 children were on a waiting list for assessment for homeschooling at the end of last June, 8% more than in the first quarter of this year.