Children in care - Closing Ráth na nÓg rare forethought

On average, more than one child in care is injured every day, and more than 56% of those injuries require hospital treatment. These figures form part of a very disturbing picture.

During the 18 months up to the end of 2012, injuries to 268 children in care were reported in the Dublin Mid-Leinster area. Of those, 89 cases required doctor or hospital care, while 96 injured children in care required such medical treatment in the Dublin North-East area, even though less than half as many injuries were actually reported. Such figures are alarming when one considers that the total in care in July was 374.

Inspectors from the Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) who visited Ráth na nÓg, the high-support unit catering for 10 very disturbed children in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, produced a damning report that recommended immediate action. When the recommendations were not implemented by the time of the next inspection, a month later, the HSE decided to close the premises.

Children with severe emotional and behavioural problems were being locked in overnight in what Hiqa considered a potential firetrap. They were locked in supposedly to protect them, as they would otherwise run away at night to partake in drink and drug abuse, as well as engaging in sexual behaviour.

In the circumstances, the decision to lock the children in seemed like a prescription for a disaster. In the six months prior to the first of those inspections, the children had started fires on four different occasions and, in the following month, there were more than 30 such incidents. The staff at Ráth na nÓg stated that Gordon Jeyes, the national director of the new Child and Family Services Agency, ordered that the doors should be locked.

Interviewed on RTÉ’s This Week programme yesterday, Mr Jeyes did not take full responsibility for that decision, but he did say he endorsed the decision when it was brought to his attention. He defended this on the grounds that four members of staff were on duty in the premises while the doors were locked.

In relation to further allegations about abuse not being reported to the HSE, Mr Jeyes was content that such reporting should be left to the professional judgement of the authorities at Ráth na nÓg. He acknowledged that the Hiqa report was highly critical, and he accepted the central gist of the criticism, though not necessarily all of the details.

Mr Jeyes insisted that Ráth na nÓg was not closed because of the Hiqa report, which noted the behaviour of the residents had deteriorated during their stay. Instead, he suggested that the decision to close the facilities was taken because of “the lack of effective behaviour management and failure to show evidence of sufficient improvement, or indeed, a capacity to improve”.

All too often, it seems that government agencies are incapable of reform until their mistakes are highlighted by some tragedy. While Mr Jeyes seems to beating around the bush, Hiqa and the HSE should be commended in this instance.