Social work pledge unlikely to meet child needs

THE pledge by Minister for Children Barry Andrews (July 29) to fill 270 vacant social work posts in child protection services indicates that, on average, each local health office is down 8.5 posts.

If there is no embargo on HSE recruitment of social workers, why have thesevacancies arisen at all?

Full capacity under the current ratio of staff to needs would not adequately deal with existing cases, much less make inroads into the backlog lists of calls made by the public. So how does the minister propose that the service should deal with a possible increase in calls arising from the new leverage being placed on organisations to report suspicions of child abuse?

I doubt the €25m promised by the minister would fund the long-awaited out-of-hours duty teams in each local health office area needed to support existing placements. Will the certificates due to be issued to all those institutionalised as children, stating they do not have a criminal record arising from their referrals to those institutions, officially render null and void the judicial verdicts which committed the children?

Michele Savage

Glendale Park

Dublin 12