HSE admits to data collection flaws

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has admitted major flaws in the way information is collected about vulnerable children in care.

The admission comes after the executive said it does not know how many young people have died while in State care. It also follows reports the HSE has failed to hand over files on the death of children in its care to an independent team set up to review such deaths.

This evening the executive said it will assist with the investigation “in every way that it can and to provide as much information as possible to this group”.

It said details in the files which the HSE is seeking to make available to the group “relate to Court proceedings which were held in camera, under the provision of the Child Care Act,” and as such it is seeking legal guidance on how it can best prepare these files for transfer to independent team.

Earlier the executive's assistant director of children and family services Phil Garland said there were "deficits" in the manner in which it gathers details pertaining to the death of children in care.

Mr Garland said the HSE was currently collating data on children who were known to the executive, and not just in care.

“It is absolutely not acceptable that this delay is there. We should have this information in a much clearer way," he said. "It is quite clear that we have deficits in our system. It is quite clear we have inconsistencies in terms of how we do standardised processes," he told RTÉ radio earlier today.

Minister for Children Barry Andrews said yesterday he was "extremely frustrated" at the length of time it is taking the HSE to furnish him with information on the number of children who have died over the past decade.

The official figure given by the executive in the past is 23 but Mr Andrews has admitted the numbers may be higher.

A spokesman for Mr Andrews told The Irish Times yesterday if the numbers of children to have died in State care were significantly higher than the official figure, "there would be serious questions to be asked."

Mr Garland said today he shared Mr Andrews frustration over the delay in gathering data but added accurate figures should be available to the minister by the end of June.

The HSE has said that although it does not know the exact number of children to have died while in care, reports that as many as 200 may have died "were based on speculation and cannot be relied upon."

Mr Garland said today accurate figures should be available to the minister next month.

"I have written to the minister and indicated that it is so important to get this right that it will take a period of weeks and by the end of June we will have that information," he said.

Mr Garland also said he was hopeful that information regarding care deaths would be given to the independent team established to review the scandal later this week.

Fine Gael today called on the Taoiseach Brian Cowen to intervene in the matter. The party's children's spokesman Alan Shatter accused Mr Andrews of renouncing responsibility over the number of child deaths and said it was unclear who exactly was responsible for child care and protection services.

"The Minister is expressing public frustration at the HSE’s inability to furnish to him definitive figures as to the number of children in the past decade who have died in care or who have died subsequent to being reported at risk, a year and a half after I first sought this information," said Mr Shatter.

"Whilst this charade continues children will continue to be at risk who should be protected and there is a genuine public concern that there may be more deaths that could be prevented.

"It is time for the Taoiseach to take charge and address the chaos daily disclosed which is undermining all remaining public confidence in the service,” he added.

Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said a high level of political will is required to address the issues relating to children who die or go missing while in care.

"This is something that requires really high level policital direction and I just can't see that, I can't see where the political will is to begin to address these kinds of issues," he said. "It's not just (about) the number of children who have died in care. We also know that hundreds of children have gone missing from care, many of them non-national children and no-one knows where they are."

Elsewhere, Sinn Féin said the HSE's claim that it was unaware of the full extent of children's deaths in their care was"astonishing."

The party's children's spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said full discloure on all deaths was essential.

Mr Andrews is to meet with health officials, including Mr Garland, later this week.