THE Eastern Health Board is to introduce new procedures to provide the courts with reports on vulnerable children.
Legal representatives of the board announced the changes at a court hearing yesterday. They did so shortly before the general secretary of Impact, Mr Peter McLoone, was due to face contempt proceedings because his members were refusing to supply reports in the case being heard.
Social workers in Impact have been refusing to take on extra caseloads as part of a long running dispute over staffing. Last month, the situation was exacerbated when new provisions of the 1991 Child Care Act came into force. It requires that additional reports be supplied to the courts.
Details of the case in question cannot be published because the proceedings were held in camera. However, it is understood that the chief executive officer of the Eastern board, Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, and Mr McLoone had both been warned they could be held in contempt if the case continued to be obstructed by the Impact members work to rule.
The judge told the court at a hearing last month that Mr Fitzpatrick could be held in contempt if he refused to instruct a social worker to prepare a report and that the social worker could then be held in contempt if the instruction was not carried out. However, when the board explained the industrial relations background to the court, Mr McLoone was summonsed to appear.
It is understood that Impact had made arrangements to appeal immediately to the High Court if Mr McLoone was committed to prison for contempt at yesterday's hearing. In the event, the board told the court that a new agency would provide it with reports to the court on an interim basis, instead of Impact members.
The judge made it clear he had been prepared to imprison Mr McLoone for contempt if the case had continued to be frustrated by the union's action.
Last month, the social workers' branch voted unanimously to take strike action if any member was imprisoned for contempt. They said the work to rule was because they were grossly under resourced.
In a motion passed at that meeting Impact members said: "If any branch member is charged, arrested or imprisoned for obeying a legitimate union instruction, all members of community care social worker teams shall take immediate all out industrial action and a special general meeting of all members shall be called to escalate the action if a satisfactory resolution is not immediately found."
Such action would have paralysed court proceedings in many family law and juvenile court cases. There are already more than 1,000 cases awaiting the allocation of a social worker.
Despite the interim arrangements, board policy remains one of using its personnel to prepare court reports. The dispute has not been resolved due to lack of funding but management has also claimed there is a shortage of suitably qualified personnel.
Neither Impact nor the board was prepared to comment on the case yesterday. A spokeswoman for the board added it would be inappropriate to give details of the interim agency arrangements before staff had been consulted.