CHILD PROTECTION services are viewed by many children and parents who have come into contact with the system as powerful, unsympathetic and hostile, according to a report published yesterday.
The study also found that victims of domestic violence often experienced difficulty in having their concerns taken seriously and found the system difficult to access.
The study, Service Users' Perceptions of the Irish Child Protection System, by Dr Helen Buckley, a senior lecturer at Trinity College Dublin's school of social work, was based on almost 70 service users' experience.
A number of people surveyed believed they had been harshly and unfairly judged, feeling that social workers did not consider all the complexities and stresses in their lives. In particular, they felt too much responsibility was being left to them, even when they were too weak or traumatised to take action, the report found.
Young people in care said changes in their allocated social workers caused unsettling disruptions, especially where relationships with their workers were crucial.
Children in the process of leaving care also raised concerns about the future services they would receive.
On a positive note, a number of service users spoke of the practical help and therapeutic input they received from child protection services.
While some interventions were generally highly rated, some people expressed dissatisfaction with delays and unreturned phone calls on the part of staff which left them feeling "abandoned and insulted".
Commenting on the findings, Dr Buckley said the often negative view of child protection services was largely due to preconceived ideas and attitudes, as well as conflicting views on what constituted adequate parenting.
"Service users held some misinformed views of the powers of social workers to remove their children from them - an overarching fear experienced by the majority of those reported to the system," she said.
"In a number of cases, negative perceptions were modified once service users engaged with the services. However, a number of interviewees were very dissatisfied with the way that mistaken or malicious reports about them were handled."
The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at improving services, such as a "dual-track" approach which would help child protection teams discriminate between children who are seriously at risk and children in vulnerable families who are more likely to benefit from a welfare-oriented, therapeutic approach.
It also suggests establishing a specific service which would deal with allegations in the context of separation and custody disputes.
In response to the report, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said the report was based on a small sample of service users and was unrepresentative of the system in general.
"While the HSE noted references in Dr Buckley's report from service users describing social workers as 'lacking in empathy', we would equally note and recognise her reference to reports of social workers considered to be 'understanding, kind and calm'," the HSE said in a statement.
HSE childcare specialist Aidan Waterstone added that it was often inevitable child protection services by their nature were viewed as an unwelcome intrusion into the life of many families.
"It is therefore noteworthy that four out of 10 of the respondents in the research sought out contact with these services, and many had positive things to report about the services they subsequently received," he said.