Social workers back minister's call for independent review into HSE services in North-West

Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte: 'To me, what’s concerning is that there appears to be a pattern emerging and it’s a safeguarding issue for the residents in the CHO1 North-West.' File Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The body representing social workers has backed Disabilities Minister Anne Rabbitte’s calls for an independent review of current safeguarding processes after Hiqa questioned the Health Service Executive's fitness as a registered provider of centres for people with disabilities.

The questions posed by the health watchdog came after what it described in correspondence as "a very serious incident" regarding the online behaviour of a resident at one centre in CHO1, the area that covers Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west Cavan.

RTÉ News said the correspondence it had seen showed Hiqa staff questioning the HSE's fitness to provide centres for people with disabilities following the incident, which is understood to involve a resident viewing material of child sexual exploitation online.

The situation emerged just months after the revelation of serious safeguarding shortcomings in the same CHO area involving Brandon, a resident at a HSE disability centre in Co Donegal.

As for the latest incident to come to light, correspondence indicated the resident had been found to be viewing online images in 2016 and 2017, but the HSE did not pass on this information, and Hiqa inspectors were also not provided with assurances that the incident was appropriately managed.

It prompted Ms Rabbitte to seek an independent review into services provided by the HSE in the North-West region.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Ms Rabbitte said: "I was really shocked with the contents of the letter from Hiqa.

“To me, what’s concerning is that there appears to be a pattern emerging and it’s a safeguarding issue for the residents in the CHO1 North-West.

Where we have repeated incidents and the development of a pattern, one has to question the staff’s understanding and management’s understanding about the roles and responsibilities around safeguarding."

The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) said it fully supported Ms Rabbitte’s calls for an independent review of current safeguarding processes. It added: "There is now an opportunity for a completely independent, transparent external review led by experts with international standing, so that the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, including HSE senior management, Hiqa as the regulator, service providers and frontline staff can all be independently reviewed and strengthened, in order to make appropriate and effective improvements."

IASW chair Vivian Geiran said: “We urgently require new governance and clinical oversight of the management of safeguarding concerns in the HSE. Mirroring the same role successfully introduced in Northern Ireland, the HSE should appoint a chief social worker, to act as professional and clinical lead in the strategic response to the issues highlighted again by the most recent Hiqa correspondence.” 

Meanwhile, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has called for an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Mental Health, and the chief executive of the HSE regarding the "wholly inadequate" resourcing of mental health services.

The college said it had sent invitations by letter to the Taoiseach, various ministers and Paul Reid last week, in light of the publication of the Maskey report into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs in South Kerry.

'Root and branch reform needed'

The college represents 1,000 professional psychiatrists across the country and said "root and branch reform is needed to address multiple systemic failings in the system".

Its own recommendations included an increase in the training budget, an urgent review into waiting list times, the reinstatement of a directorate for mental health services and the appointment of a national clinical lead for children.

Dr Imelda Whyte, chair of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the College of Psychiatrists, said: “It has been abundantly clear for some time that the provision of mental health services in this country is broken, and the distressing and disturbing case in South Kerry has highlighted what is an utter systemic failure. The College of Psychiatrists has called on successive governments for the past 10 years to increase the spend on mental health services from a paltry 5.6% of the general health budget to at least 12%, all to no avail.

“This is unacceptable, and unfortunately has contributed to this case in South Kerry Camhs. The morale of medical professionals has been significantly impacted by this case, and it is beholden on the Government to implement meaningful reforms as a matter of urgency to restore trust among the public.”