Children’s welfare organisations said today they were disappointed that the Health Service Executive (HSE) has abandoned plans for an out-of-hours social care service for troubled children.
The HSE said today the plan to open a national call centre and to introduce 24-hour on-call social care teams, had been halted due to financial pressures.
“In the current economic climate, it is not possible to progress the fully comprehensive dedicated out of hours service,” the HSE said in a statement.
“However, in the context of the discussions with the (Department of Health and Children) in recent weeks, the HSE is currently focusing on the provision of emergency placements for children on an out-of-hours basis.”
The HSE said these new plans are being finalised and it plans to bring the proposals to the Department in September.
HSE assistant national director Hugh Kane said significant work had taken place in recent months on a review of out-of-hours services.
“That review was comprehensive and it looked at all aspects of care sought by or on behalf of children on an out-of-hours basis. This could include a sick child, or a young person in care who may have absconded or indeed a troubled teenager," he said.
Mr Kane said the range of services these children require is diverse and that there was always access to services such as GP out-of-hours co-ops and A&E services "as appropriate".
"Child safety and security is at the core of all our work and our new proposals will underpin this goal.”
Children’s charity Barnardos said cuts such as those confirmed today were the “worst possible form of cost savings” as they would hit the most vulnerable members of society.
Director of advocacy Norah Gibbons said that failure to provide such a service could result in children being placed in “extremely dangerous situations”.
“In Barnardos we know that family crises do not just happen between the hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. If we are serious about protecting children, we need a properly resourced 24 hour professional social care service that includes both an early response mechanism where concerns are raised, as well as a crisis response to emergency situations as they arise.”
She said no one wanted to see children sleeping in A&E departments or police stations, as a 15-year-old boy recently did, because there is no care plan in place for troubled youngsters outside of normal working hours.
The Children’s Rights Alliance said abandoning plans to introduce access to emergency social work services for children at risk was “wholly unacceptable”.
Chief executive Jillian van Turnhout said: “Scrapping these plans suggests something worrying - those making decisions in the HSE do not understand their statutory obligations in the area of child protection under the Child Care Act, 1991 and the Children Act, 2001.
“The State’s social work services are a priority front line service and must be sufficient to meet their statutory obligations. This decision is a sad indictment of Ireland’s treatment of its children and, as a nation, we should be deeply ashamed. The alliance urges the HSE to look again at its budget.”
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) said intervention in the cases of vulnerable children who were at risk, or victims of abuse, "is not deemed to be a financial priority for the Government".
Advocacy manager Mary Nicholson said: "The ISPCC Childline service receives the majority of its calls from children and young people outside of 9am-5pm and unfortunately, we are only able to answer approximately half the calls received due to limited resources an a complete absence of government funding.
"This again reiterates the need for a national out of hours service which will ensure that children who need a service, receive one at the time it is needed. Child protection and welfare is not a 9-5 issue and we as a nation are failing to adequately protect children if such a system is not in place."