Tusla faces staffing issues and violent incidents as it aims to use less private residential care

According to the report, there are currently 177 residential care centres, comprising Tusla-owned centres, community and voluntary centres, and private centres.

Tusla is to overhaul its residential care system as the current mix is "unsustainable" amid difficulties in recruiting staff, rising absenteeism and an increase in the number of incidents of violence, harassment and aggression against other children and employees.

The comments are contained in the Child and Family Agency's Strategic Plan for Residential Care Services for Children and Young People 2022-2025, and follow similar assertions made last year by Tusla CEO, Bernard Gloster.

Tusla received 72,762 referrals to child protection and welfare services last year and at the end of 2021 there were 5,862 children in the care of the State. While almost 90% of those children were in foster care, 8% (506 young people) were in residential care and the remaining 2% (91) were in other placements such as supported lodgings, a disability service, or a detention centre.

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According to the report, there are currently 177 residential care centres, comprising Tusla-owned centres, community and voluntary centres, and private centres, but residential care costs represent approximately 25% (€214.1m) of Tusla's total expenditure in 2021 of €867.1m.

"From 2015, the cost of private provision has risen by 21% (increase of €15.36m)," it said. "Special care services and Tusla provision have also increased by 17% (increase of €2.17m) and 25% (increase of €10.23m) respectively."

Last year, 17% of Tusla's staff were in children’s residential services and while retention rates have met stated targets, "absenteeism rates remain a significant challenge" with on average 27% of staff each December on some form of sick leave.

"Recruitment of staff is increasingly challenging, job satisfaction is described as low, with an increase in the number of incidents of violence, harassment and aggression against other children/young people and staff."

Writing in the report, Tusla's National Director of Service and Integration, Kate Duggan, said it is "increasingly clear that for a small but increasing cohort of young people we are not adequately meeting their needs".

She said private provision in alternative care will continue to be part of the agency’s response, but said: 

It is evident that our current dependency on private residential care, 60:40 private:public provision, is unsustainable and carries several risks.

"Our ambition over the next three years, as detailed in this plan is to incrementally reverse our disproportionate dependency on private residential care, increasing our public residential capacity by an additional 104 beds, to achieve 50:50 private:public provision by 2025."

According to the report, there has been a "significantly increasing proportion of children leaving residential care [and] moving into independent living where the level of informal network and connections are likely to be poor", and an increasing number of young people coming into the care system for the first time as teens, directly from their community.

"There is inadequate capacity to meet the demand for placements across the country, with significant challenges sourcing appropriate placements for children and young people, particularly those with complex presentations, younger children, or those in an emergency," it said. "There is a corresponding decrease in the availability of suitable foster care placements."