PRESS CONFERENCE:NO ADDITIONAL training in relation to identifying and properly handling cases of child neglect has been provided to social work staff in Roscommon since serious failings by them were identified in a report presented to the Health Service Executive in July, it was confirmed yesterday.
That report, which was finally published yesterday, found six children in Roscommon suffered harm and neglect at the hands of their parents – both of whom are now in jail – for longer than necessary due to a range of systems and staff failures.
In some instances, social workers were not sufficiently alert to indications of neglect. And in many cases records kept by social workers lacked key information.
Bernard Gloster, local health manager with the HSE West, told a press briefing in Dublin following publication of the inquiry report that further training will be provided to staff, beginning later this year. There will also be induction training for all new staff and he said five of the 200 new social workers promised by Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews this year will go to Roscommon. Three of them have already been appointed.
Mr Gloster said the HSE will examine whether any disciplinary action is now required against any member of staff criticised in the report. But he stressed the report found all the workers who provided services to the family were well intentioned.
On behalf of the HSE, he said he wished to apologise to the six children in this case as he said there had been clear service failures by the then Western Health Board up to the time the children were taken into care in 2004.
“The report finds that, regardless of the good intentions of the health and social care providers, important child protection concerns were not addressed adequately over the years. This failure meant that the harm and neglect of the children and young adults in this family continued for longer than would have been necessary,” he said.
He added that the HSE was committed to learning from the report’s findings, acknowledging that the health service’s response in this case “had many shortcomings”.
He said the HSE had introduced new standard operating procedures for childcare case conferences and these will be fully operational before the end of the year.
An audit of how other cases of neglect in Roscommon and in two other regions – HSE South and HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster – would also be carried out in line with the report’s recommendations, he said.
The audit, he confirmed, will be carried out by an independent expert and the number of cases to be reviewed and the period of time the audit will cover has yet to be decided. It will be carried out by Lynne Peyton, an independent childcare consultant.
Mr Gloster admitted in advance of the audit that there were concerns in the HSE about how neglect cases were handled in some areas other than in Roscommon.
The report referred to the fact that two members of the family did not wish to meet the inquiry team. Asked if these were the parents of the six children Mr Gloster did not confirm one way or the other but said he was satisfied the inquiry team led by Norah Gibbons of Barnardos made the appropriate efforts to contact all the people required to conduct the investigation.
The Irish Timesunderstands the two family members who did not meet the inquiry team were children and that their mother was interviewed for the report.
Mr Gloster confirmed four of the six children in this case have now been in the care of the HSE for six years. “They are well settled in secure and caring foster homes and are progressing well. The two older children, who are now young adults, have found a loving home with relatives,” he said.