Tusla leaving vulnerable young people in holiday homes and hotels due to lack of suitable placements

According to the Child Law Project, delays and difficulties in accessing suitable placements were often cited as a factor in the deterioration in a child’s wellbeing and behaviour. 

Courts appear to be dealing with a growing number of cases in which suitable care places are not available for vulnerable young people, leaving some relying on hotel accommodation and other "ad hoc settings".

The latest volume of reports from the Child Law Project shows concern about suitable residential and foster care placements were a theme in 14 of the 59 cases.

Various courts heard the lack of available options is leaving Tusla with no alternative but to place some children in care in "ad hoc settings", supported by care staff.

In one report, a 14-year-old boy had to stay in a hotel room, while in another, a teenage boy with complex needs was living in a holiday home. 

Elsewhere, two young children were in residential care following the breakdown of foster care placements, while judges heard in a number of cases the specialist placement needed to keep a child safe and address their specific needs and behavioural difficulties was not available.

The Child and Family Agency has already admitted the difficulties it faces in this area, its own recently-published strategy of residential care highlighting how hotels were sometimes used. 

That report also showed that more than 100 vulnerable young people in need of an emergency placement had to be accommodated in hotels last year — including two children under the age of four — because of a lack of capacity within Tusla's national out-of-hours service.

According to the Child Law Project — formerly the Child Care Law Reporting Project — delays and difficulties in accessing suitable placements were often cited as a factor in the deterioration in a child’s wellbeing and behaviour. 

It said those problems could be aggravated by an unsuitable placement, adding: "Such placements are often not compliant with national standards or in line with best practice."

Shambles

In one case, a teenage boy, who had been the subject of a care order for the past two years, was living in holiday accommodation following his release from a detention centre. 

The court heard the State was paying an annual sum of €780,000 for a placement that was not Hiqa-compliant and the child would be leaving the care system in 2023 and would be incapable of independent living — a situation the judge described as a shambles.

Chief executive of the Child Law Project Dr Maria Corbett, said: "It is actually a crisis. It is as bad as I have seen it in 20 years."

She said in some cases it led to young people in care also overlapping with the criminal courts and "bouncing between the two systems".

“The use of inappropriate placements, such as hotels and holiday homes, for an extended period of time is deeply worrying. Despite the efforts of the Child and Family Agency, the number and type of placements that are needed do not exist, especially where the child has a disability or behavioural issues. This is leading to poor outcomes for children, and frustration on the part of the judges and all those involved in child care proceedings. The matter needs to receive urgent political attention.” 

About half of the 59 reports involved allegations of parental neglect and abuse, while 10 other cases involving separated children, including one from Ukraine, in which there were serious concerns the girl may have been groomed and then trafficked here.

It also includes a case in which the HSE was criticised for lack of planning to meet needs of children with disabilities, and concerns some vulnerable children who have been in care and who on reaching adulthood are taken into wardship as a protective measure, as distinct from new laws on wards of court and the introduction of a system of assisted decision-making.