The “profiteering” by private operators providing unregulated placements for “the most vulnerable children” is “wrong and shameful”, a Dublin District Court judge has said.
In what he described as an “unusual” step, Judge Conor Fottrell published a written decision on a case concerning a 13-year-old boy who remains missing from his unregulated placement, known as a special emergency arrangement.
The case came before the judge’s court on Wednesday for the third time in a week.
When the “highly vulnerable young boy” came into care late last year, the only placement available was a special emergency arrangement, notes the judge.
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“No other placement option has yet been identified.”
The boy has absconded more than once, apparently without staff at his placement noticing, the court heard.
His social worker and court-appointed advocate told the judge on Wednesday that the boy’s condition was deteriorating, they believed he was being “groomed” by criminals, taking drugs and that his life was “at risk”.
The judge said he would publish a written decision on the case.
“It is unusual but from my perspective there has to be a record in relation to all this,” he said.
“If in years to come [this boy] or some other child in the care of [Tusla] comes back and asks, ‘What the hell was everybody doing?’, I want it very clear and I want it to be known this court had grave reservations in relation to the use of SEAs [special emergency arrangements].”
Special emergency arrangements are unregulated placements provided by private operators. They are not compliant with national standards, nor inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority. They are typically in rented dwellings including hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets.
Tusla, the child and family agency, paid more than €36 million to private operators for SEAs in the first seven months of last year in spite of growing concerns about their suitability and safety for vulnerable children.
The judge’s decision, in which he outlines his “serious concern and reservations around [Tusla] ... relying on an SEA as an option for children in care”, was published on Thursday.
“This case highlights again the placement crisis that exists for children in the care of the State and how that crisis is impacting on the safety and welfare of children in care and placing them at an increased risk of harm,” he wrote.
The judge notes the boy had been the subject of 46 child protection referrals since 2012 centred around “parental substance misuse in the home, reports of domestic violence, and reports of neglect”. His mother is deceased and his father has had addiction issues.
His “protecting and loving” grandparent could not keep him safe from escalating involvement with older, criminal peers. The grandparent and father were present in court with legal representatives.
The judge, granting a one-week extension to the interim care order, directed Tusla to “provide a suitable and appropriate registered placement”.
“The fact that these SEAs are owned by private businesses and individuals who are profiteering out of a placement crisis for the most vulnerable children in care is just wrong and shameful,” he said in his decision.
Earlier on Wednesday, the same court heard a 17-year-old boy, born with foetal alcohol syndrome, was in a special emergency arrangement after his foster placement broke down. He had no relationship with his birth family and was “effectively alone”.
He was calling his social worker “up to 30 times a day” in extreme distress and had taken 30 sleeping tablets in one recent incident.
“It is just an unacceptable situation that we find ourselves in,” said the judge. “The use of SEAs must come to an end. We cannot continue like this. We cannot have children in care that is unregulated, unregistered, unsuitable and inappropriate.”
