THE NUMBER of children in the care of the State has risen to 6,175, the highest level since records began, new figures show.
In the first six months of the year the number of children in care increased by 385, about three times the number admitted into the system during all of last year.
The vast majority, 5,548, were in foster care, while 465 were in residential care.
Another 162 were in other forms of care placements, according to figures compiled by the Health Service Executive.
Social work groups and children’s charities say the upward trend may be linked to greater awareness over abuse and neglect, following high-profile cases such as the Roscommon abuse case.
However, some practitioners fear the increase may also be linked to the economic downturn, with cutbacks to support services and increasing numbers of parents unable to cope.
Ineke Durville of the Irish Association of Social Workers said: “There’s also an atmosphere out there of erring on the side of caution. Since Roscommon, they may be quicker to take children into care.”
She said cuts to early intervention services like family support – which may have helped vulnerable parents to cope – increase the risk of children presenting as “emergency” cases.
Groups such as the Children’s Rights Alliance, a coalition of about 80 children’s groups, have expressed concern at the rising numbers and called for a study to determine why children are coming into care.
HSE officials have downplayed the increase and said it is not necessarily very significant.
Gordon Jeyes, national director of children and family services at the executive, said earlier this year that increases in Ireland were part of an international trend.
There has been a long-standing increase in the numbers being admitted into care in Ireland. In 1989 there were a total of 2,756 children in State care. This rose to 4,216 in 1999 and reached 5,790 last year.
While the child population has been growing for much of that time, the proportion of children being admitted into care has also grown sharply, doubling from 26 children per 10,000 in 1989 to 51 per 10,000 by 2007. More recent figures are not available.
Latest official statistics also indicate that the HSE is making some progress in complying with its statutory childcare requirement, though gaps still remain.
For example, 91 per cent of children have a care plan in place and 93 per cent have been allocated a social worker. Almost 90 per cent of approved foster carers were also allocated a social worker.
Social work files seen by The Irish Timesearlier this month show that hundreds of urgent child protection reports are not being assessed or followed up, leaving many young people at high risk of abuse or neglect.
In interviews, social work teams in several parts of the State said they were being forced to ignore potentially serious reports of suspected abuse or neglect because of heavy workloads and under-staffing.
Officials say significant additional resources are being targeted at the area with 60 social workers being recruited.
However, the recruitment of these posts has been put on hold by HSE management in recent weeks because of the scale of the financial challenge facing the organisation.
