Children in the State’s “broken” care system have been sexually groomed and assaulted, gone missing for days, including leaving the State, and been moved between dozens of unregulated placements in short periods, a highly critical report has found.
In many cases, the report from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) concludes, more harm is being done to children once they are taken into care.
The report, Let’s get it right! A rights-based vision for children in care, notes that the “most profound breaches” of children’s rights concern those in State care.
It details cases where children were detained for years in secure care having committed no offence because there was no onward placement, and one where two young siblings were accommodated in a centre with teenagers and 30 staff because there was no available foster home.
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“How we have fallen so far as a country that we appear unable to provide a highly vulnerable child, in the care of the State, with a safe and stable place to live?” asks Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon in his foreword.
The report says: “The care system in Ireland is broken for many children ... As it stands it is not operating in the best interests of children, and it is our experience that the care system is where the most profound breaches of all children rights are found.”
The almost 6,000 children in care “are among the most vulnerable groups of children in Ireland”, it says.
“Deciding to take a child into the care of the State is a monumental decision ... By doing so the State is saying ‘we can do better for this child’. In many cases the State is failing to meet this fundamental objective, and in some instances, children are being exposed to greater risk.”
Among the failings noted are severe shortages of social workers; a crisis in availability of placements; difficulties recruiting and retaining residential care staff; growing reliance on private providers; increasing numbers of children in unregulated placements, and inadequate supports for unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
[ Tusla could face ‘criminal liability’ over unregistered placements, court hearsOpens in new window ]
“A pattern emerges when we examine key statistics from Tusla over the past 10 years – a decline in foster care placements, an increase in children in residential care and a significant increase in the private provision of care.”
The report comes in the wake of repeated, trenchant criticisms from the judiciary about privately-provided, unregulated placements, known as special emergency arrangements (SEAs), children being unable to access secure care beds, and a lack of onward placements for children from secure care.
Among seven anonymised cases included in the report is that of 15-year-old “Jasmine”, who has been in care since last April.
She went missing several times while being accommodated in SEAs for days , “once even travelling to another jurisdiction”.
During this time she was exposed to “violence, drug use and other criminal behaviour”. Once “she was in the company of a man who we understand was exploiting her. Jasmine has further complained that she had been assaulted by another man.”
“James”, who came into care aged 14 due to behavioural issues his family could no longer manage, was in 35 SEAs in five months, including hotels, B&Bs, or privately-leased properties across five different counties. He “spent several nights in social work offices, Garda stations and hospitals waiting for SEAs to be put in place”.
[ Tusla saw 10% increase in referrals last year, committee hearsOpens in new window ]
In July 2022 he was placed in secure care, for an initial three months, but stayed for three years. His final year was spent on his own with two staff “even though he had not been convicted of a criminal charge”. At 18 he left secure care as he had aged out, with no aftercare plan.
“At the time of this report James is homeless.”
Despite a doubling of child protection referrals – from 56,000 in 2015 to 106,000 last year – Tusla remains “chronically underfunded”, says the report.
Its budget has increased by 94 per cent in the decade, but “is still way behind on what it should be”. Between 2021 and last year, Tusla received less than half (€571 million) of what it asked for in pre-budget estimates “leaving a shortfall of €616 million”.
“Budgets are all about choices and this raises serious questions about the prioritisation of the most vulnerable children in the State,” the report says. “The Department for Children ... and the Department of Public Expenditure must play a much more active role. The State can and must do better.”
A Department of Children consultation on the care system, currently under way, “provides a pivotal moment for our care system and a once in a generation opportunity to get it right”.
