Many children had no social workers and Tusla couldn't fill jobs — Hiqa

Inspections by Hiqa found that children experienced multiple changes in social workers over short periods of time, and continued to experience delays in accessing the service or a care placement that was appropriate to their needs. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Many children did not have an allocated social worker while vacancies persisted in many Tusla services, a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has found.

The health watchdog conducted 56 inspections throughout 2021 and found that while there were improvements in compliance against national standards and regulations across children’s services, there was further room for improvement in governance and management and resourcing services. 

The inspections found that children experienced multiple changes in social workers over short periods of time, and continued to experience delays in accessing the service or a care placement that was appropriate to their needs. 

A small number of children experienced delays coming into care due to the lack of suitable placements, however, where children had an allocated social worker who met them consistently, they received a good quality service.

The report also found that Tusla employed other professional groups and used social care staff to mitigate the risk associated with reduced staffing levels.

Eva Boyle, Hiqa’s Head of Children’s Services, said 2021 was another challenging year for children’s services because of the pandemic and the cyber-attack on Tusla’s information systems. 

"Our inspections found an ongoing commitment to delivering good quality and safe services to children; however, there were inconsistencies in many services provided to children that need to be improved upon," Ms Boyle said.

One persistent finding from our inspections was the continued challenge that Tusla experienced in adequately resourcing its services and the impact that this had on children. 

“It is crucial that children have access to the right service for them at the right time to support their development and promote their safety and rights. 

"We highlighted these findings to Tusla throughout the year, along with cases where there were delays in providing appropriate placements to children and Tusla has developed a residential strategy to guide their future planning and delivery of residential care," she said.

"There was also a lack of suitable foster care placements for children requiring admission to care. 

"Towards the end of 2021, the number of children who did not have an allocated social worker increased in many service areas.

Ms Boyle added that Hiqa is committed to the continued improvement of services available to children and their families. 

"We listened to what children had to say about their care and used their views to assess the performance of services. The majority of children spoken with were positive about their experiences of the services they received.”