Children in care 'cannot be locked up'

STATE CHILD care providers cannot lock children up 24 hours a day to ensure they do not go missing, the Minister for Children told a symposium on child well-being yesterday.

Reacting to allegations that allowing children in the care of the HSE to go missing was “a dereliction of duty”, Minister Barry Andrews said care providers could not lock up children.

The Minister was speaking at the Child Well-Being International Symposium in Dublin Castle. The symposium was organised by UCD in collaboration with the Office for the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

“If society says we do not want any children going missing from care then we are talking about warehousing children,” he said.

“One wonders what would be the likely result for a child given this care. What social worker or care staff member is going to volunteer to bring a child out shopping or on any kind of an expedition?” he asked.

But he acknowledged that “very sophisticated” services had to be developed to meet the needs of children in care.

Three young people who had taken part in consultations with the Minister’s office also spoke.

“Craig” told delegates he had 15 foster placements during his life in HSE care, had been in two residential care homes and had 19 social workers. “I thought social workers were there just to make my life harder,” he said.

Mr Andrews also said he expected 60,000 parents to avail of the free pre-school year for their children this year.

The Minister said pre-school practitioners could be given extra training to help them to identify conditions in children such as early language delay and speech problems.