Children alleging sexual assault and abuse left waiting months for social worker assessment 

Report found Tusla’s child protection and welfare service had 'inadequate resources in place to meet the demands of the service and the needs of children'. 

Children alleging sexual assault, inappropriate contact, and abuse have been left to wait for months for an initial social worker assessment, according to a new report from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).

Hiqa published an inspection report on Wednesday on services provided by Tusla's child protection and welfare service in the Dublin south, west Kildare, and west Wicklow area.

The report, based upon an inspection carried out between April 3 and April 6 of this year, found Tusla’s child protection and welfare service had “inadequate resources in place to meet the demands of the service and the needs of children”. 

It also found a high number of the children referred to the service did not have an allocated social worker, and that there was “a chronic shortfall in staffing resources to meet the demands of the service”. 

Hiqa also said the service had significant gaps “in the monitoring and oversight of waitlisted cases, including the completion of safety planning” with many children in the Dublin south, west Kildare and west Wicklow area and their families left to wait "an unacceptably long time" for preliminary enquiries and initial assessments to take place.

“The purpose of preliminary enquiries is to gain further information in order to determine what action is required to address the needs of and risks to the child,” Hiqa said.

“As enquiries did not take place in a timely fashion, the risk to these children was largely unknown.”

Hiq said these children and their families "were not receiving the right service at the right time, and many children remained on waitlists for extended periods without being provided with relevant supports."

For its report, Hiqa examined a number of case files of those who accessed the service.

Case reports

In one case, a four-year-old boy who alleged inappropriate contact by an older child remained on a service waiting list for a period of five months.

In another, a teenager who alleged sexual assault was found to still be on a waiting list 14 months later.

Another case brought to the Hiqa inspectors’ attention involved a teenager who was removed from their home following an alleged assault. 

The service received a message to say the teen had been taken to another country, but no contact was made with them or their family to establish their whereabouts or safety.

Hiqa said these cases, among the others included in its report, outlined how Tusla “were not fulfilling their statutory duties" under Section 3 of the Child Care Act, 1991, "nor were they taking steps to identify children who were not receiving care and protection and co-coordinating information from all relevant sources.”

Overall, Hiqa said the quality and safety of the child protection and welfare service “required significant improvement to ensure it met the needs of all children and their families who required the service”.

'Robbing Peter to pay Paul'

In carrying out the inspection, Hiqa also spoke to management and staff members at the service. 

Among the challenges they highlighted were the “area’s size and large population, the complexity of intergenerational deprivation common in some parts of the area, and the increasing number of referrals and staffing and resources that did not match these needs”. 

In an interview, a manager said management and staff in the area were “firefighting” and that the nine months prior to the Hiqa inspection had been “the most challenging” period they had experienced.

Management also said they faced “many competing demands” and were required “to prioritise the risks they were able to address within their existing resources”.

A Tusla manager in the region also told inspectors they felt as though they were “robbing Peter to pay Paul” in trying to allocate insufficient staff resources between children waiting to be allocated a social worker and children in care.

In an appendix to the report, Tusla outlined the ways in which in would bring itself into compliance with Hiqa standards.

Tusla said it would create additional capacity to allow for "greater oversight, monitoring and governance" across the Dublin south, west Kildare, west Wicklow area. Tusla said an "intermediate response has been devised which aimed to reduce all referrals awaiting preliminary enquires across the area." 

It also pledged to hire more social workers for the service. 

• Hiqa's full report into Tusla's child protection and welfare services in the Dublin south, west Kildare, west Wicklow service area can be read on its website