Tusla failing to meet standards for caring for unaccompanied child asylum seekers - Hiqa

The State’s system to care for unaccompanied minors who come to the Republic seeking asylum is failing children and requires significant improvements, according to an inspection by the healthcare regulator.

Tusla, the child and family agency, is responsible for caring for underage asylum seekers who arrive in the country without guardians, with the service coming under significant pressure since last year.

There are more than 200 unaccompanied minors currently in Tusla’s care, many having fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion last year.

An inspection by the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) found the governance of the service for separated children “was poor and required significant improvement”.

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Staff who spoke to inspectors described being limited to “putting out fires” and feeling “stressed and overwhelmed”.

The Hiqa report, published on Wednesday, found assessments of children lacked examinations of their needs, with several being completed by social work students “with no evidence of oversight or supervision”.

Inspectors said the service was facing “significant staffing challenges”, which was limiting its ability to deliver a “safe and effective service” to children.

The management of risk to children in the service “was not appropriate and required urgent review”, the report said.

“Overall, inspectors found that the quality and safety of the services for unaccompanied children seeking international protection required significant improvement,” the report said.

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The regulator said unaccompanied children did not have “timely access” to proper health screening after arriving in the country.

The report said the absence of screening was concerning, particularly as some children had come from countries with poor or non-existent vaccine programmes and high levels of illness.

In 15 of 27 case files reviewed, the child was waiting to be allocated a designated social worker.

The inspection also raised concerns about shortcomings in Tusla’s system for reunifying separated children with parents or relatives, which it said at times was “not safe”.

In two cases reviewed where children had been reunited with relatives, Hiqa said there was “no evidence of background checks” on the adult. There was also “no evidence” of Tusla observing the child with the relative, it said.

The report added there was “no clear process for verifying the identity of located parents” or other relatives so Tusla could be assured it was safe to place the child with them.

The lack of leadership and governance was “evident” in the service, which was focused on “crisis responses”, it said.

“Tusla did not ensure that resources were deployed effectively, and there was a lack of strong leadership for maintaining and improving service provision and practice,” it said.

The inspection was carried out over several days in late February and early March this year.

The report found shortcomings in how children were assessed for having been at risk of being trafficked.

The current assessment to identify possible trafficking victims was “inadequate and not consistently used across the teams, and lacked analysis of risk,” the report said.

The report concluded Tusla’s service for unaccompanied minors was failing to meet all 10 required standards that inspectors assessed.

Kate Duggan, Tusla interim chief executive, previously said the large increase in separated children seeking asylum had put serious pressure on the agency’s services.

A lack of available accommodation in group care homes and foster carers has meant many unaccompanied minors have had to be placed in special emergency arrangements, such as hotel rooms or bed and breakfasts, with Tusla staff on site.