Delays remain in Tusla reporting suspected Kerry child abuse

Last year it emerged that retrospective cases of alleged abuse had not been managed appropriately in the county, and that there had been under-reporting of notifications of suspected abuse to gardaí. File photo

Hiqa has said there are still delays in Tusla in Kerry notifying gardaí about suspected child abuse, even though it said there had been considerable improvements in the county since a series of audits conducted there last year.

Last year it emerged that retrospective cases of alleged abuse had not been managed appropriately in the county, and that there had been under-reporting of notifications of suspected abuse to gardaí.

That prompted a series of reviews culminating in the latest inspection report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), which found that while many of those serious issues had been addressed, there were still some outstanding problems.

"During this inspection, timeliness in notifying An Garda Síochána about suspected child abuse remained an issue," it said. 

"Inspectors reviewed four referrals received since July 2020. Two notifications had been made and two were outstanding. One notification was made within nine working days and the other was made two months after the referral had been received. 

One outstanding notification was for a referral received five months previous and was completed by the principal social worker to send to the Gardaí during the week of the inspection.

"Overall, governance arrangements had strengthened since the last inspections," Hiqa said. 

However, it added: "The monitoring and oversight to ensure timely notifications to An Garda Síochána required further improvement. Delays were still evident and therefore more robust management measures to track timeliness of notifications was required to ensure children received the most appropriate services at the most appropriate time when there was alleged child abuse or neglect."

In addition, there was a lack of recording to show children in foster care were being visited in line with regulations after the area had committed to every child in care being visited once every four months.

The pandemic had also had an impact. According to the report, "sufficient contact with children and families during Covid-19 was not evidenced on files".

Big improvements had been made in areas such as the screening of cases and in managing retrospective cases of abuse, but Hiqa said the validity of the area's data in relation to allegations and serious concerns was unreliable.

A compliance plan has been issued and Kate Duggan, Director of Services and Integration at Tusla, said: "Whilst challenges remain for this area, there has been progress made and additional resources have been provided to the area to assist with this work. Where a child is at immediate risk of harm they receive an immediate protective response.”