Change responsibility for those children ‘at risk’

CHILDREN “at risk” will never be properly protected so long as the responsibility remains with the Health Service Executive.

The HSE is principally concerned with individuals who are sick, and these children are not ill. If an organisation is given a secondary responsibility which is unrelated to its principal task, then it is usual to find that this secondary responsibility does not receive the attention which it requires.

There are also many departments potentially involved. For example, the Department of Education, Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Department of Social Protection, and the Department of Justice, to which must be added NGOs like Dr Barnardos and the churches.

This may seem like a good idea, and that the deficiencies of one will then be covered by another, but it seldom works like that.

The greater the number of authorities concerned, the more potential cracks between them for the unfortunate child to fall through.

The information on a family is fragmented such that no one has the complete picture. A constant in all cases where protection has failed is that those involved have not exchanged information. To avoid that, someone has to accept overall responsibility, and act as a “hub” into which all relevant information is fed. But which one is not an easy choice.

Allen Crosbie

Cobh