Efforts over the last 18 months to attract social workers to the State’s three secure care facilities for highly vulnerable children have resulted in the recruitment of enough staff to man one extra bed at the units, Tusla’s chief executive has told the High Court.
Kate Duggan also “apologised unreservedly” to the court and the families of two children for Tusla’s failure to comply with orders directing the minors be placed in a secure care unit.
Ms Duggan was giving evidence on Tuesday at the hearing of cases brought against the agency over its failure to comply with the court orders.
In the action in their names, the children, through their mothers, are seeking a declaration that Tusla is in contempt of the court’s orders.
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Tusla accepts that it did not comply with the orders, but has denied that it is in contempt of court.
One of the plaintiff children was placed in secure care on Monday after a bed became available. The other child is still without a bed, and is reported to be regularly missing from their current placement, and actively involved in the drug trade.
Highly troubled and vulnerable children aged 11 to 17 can be detained in a secure care unit, known as special care, on foot of a High Court order granted to Tusla.
Of the existing 26 beds across the State’s three secure care units, just 15 are operational due to severe difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff. For as long as Tusla has been in existence, the maximum cohort of beds has never been fully utilised, the court heard on Tuesday.
Led in her evidence by Seán Guerin SC, for Tusla, Ms Duggan explained that for a secure care bed to be operational, the agency requires seven full-time staff members. This ratio is set by Health Information and Quality Authority regulations.
At present, Tusla retains enough staff to operate 16 secure care beds, Duggan said. However, due to one minor currently in special care requiring extra staff members assigned to them, just 15 beds are operational.
Recruitment efforts over the last 18 months have seen Tusla increase secure care staffing by 31, but in the same time, 24 workers left, Ms Duggan said. These workers left for promotion opportunities, for new roles within Tulsa or elsewhere within the sector, or to travel, among other reasons, Ms Duggan said.
Ms Duggan said Tusla is “desperately striving” to open the maximum number of secure care beds, but that factors impeding the agency from attracting staff is multifaceted.
Among these issues is a limited supply of workers. Ms Duggan said that one difficulty faced by the agency was the fact that out of 700 social care students to graduate last year, just 100 of them went on to register with Coru, the regulatory body for health and social-care professionals.
Ms Duggan said issues with staffing in secure care “has never been about money”, noting that the agency has the budget to pay the requisite staff to man 26 beds. She said Tusla has not seen the interest it would have liked for roles in special care.
Ms Duggan said children in special care have very complex needs and vulnerabilities. For staff in those settings, the work is complex, demanding and at times can be very challenging due to the level of violence, harassment and aggression that the minors can sometimes subject them to, she said.
Ms Duggan accepted that it has been known for some time that staffing has been an issue within secure care.
The agency has engaged in different recruitment initiatives over the last two years, the court heard, including the establishment of an apprenticeship and the funding of a bursary. The potential of these initiatives is only starting to be realised, Ms Duggan said.
She said the agency is also implementing various recommendations made by an external report into secure care staffing.
Responding to questions about one such recommendation, Ms Duggan said that special care pay scales have “largely” been reformed to align with paypackets for staff at Oberstown Children Detention Campus.
If two to three more beds are made available this year and existing capacity is managed better,, Tusla could ensure that there are no delays in admitting children to secure care when High Court orders are made, Ms Duggan said.
The case continues before Ms Justice Emily Egan.
