Time to cherish all our children - Hidden abuse

There was a time when many people in Ireland could have pleaded justifiable ignorance of child abuse.

For decades, this hideous practice continued hidden and obscured, with the result that a sizeable proportion of our youngest citizens grew up in terror, knowing that the abuse they suffered was unlikely to be acknowledged, let alone addressed.

That is no longer the case. We now know the full horror of child abuse but perhaps we thought that, following years of revelations and concerted efforts to confront it, this huge problem had been solved.

That is not the case either, despite the fact that we have Tusla, a child protection agency that is doing Trojan work against almost insurmountable odds.

Tusla needs 250 more social workers to deal with the backlog of cases of children at risk. The child and family agency said that more investment is needed, so it can move from being a surviving organisation to a sustainable one.

The agency’s CEO, Gordon Jeyes, told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that there are currently 2,000 priority cases which would require 250 extra social workers — or €17m.

“To take care of the backlog and to resource teams adequately, we need around a further 250 additional social workers if we do it in a traditional way,” he said. “Or if we work on a different range of skillsets to take it forward, but we would need the financial equivalent of that.”

According to Tusla’s own review of its services, vulnerable children are being put at risk by a lack of resources, not enough social workers and inefficient systems.

The unpublished report, obtained by RTÉ, reveals that cases of suspected child abuse are not being followed due to pressure on staff. It includes children exposed to “serious domestic violence incidents, reports of physical abuse and other serious welfare or neglect concerns”.

The National Review of Cases Awaiting Allocation 2015 report says that as of February 28, of the total 27,337 open cases, 8,865 had not yet been allocated a social worker.

In one instant, a child in the Midlands has been waiting for an allocated social worker for more than four years.

That, in a very real sense, is a form of child abuse, but Tusla and other organisations dedicated to protecting children are hardly to blame. The fact is that we have a severely under-resourced child protection system in Ireland.

Earlier this year, a Hiqa inspection of services in North Dublin criticised staff shortages and the allocation of complex cases to inexperienced and agency workers.

According to Gráinne Long, head of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the vast majority of children who might present at risk on a Friday afternoon will not be seen by a social worker until Monday morning.

All children deserve to grow up in an environment free from harm and abuse and for their childhood to be cherished and enjoyed.

It is nothing short of a national scandal that we still don’t have a nationwide 24-hour social work service to ensure that.