Care unit staff forced to rely on gardaí to help manage safety

Staff at a special care unit for children were forced to rely on gardaí to help manage safety because of reduced staff levels, a report has found.

An inspection of the Ballydowd unit in Lucan, west Dublin, last August by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) also found one significant risk regarding the management of allegations against staff.

Ballydowd caters for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 17 who are detained under a High Court care order for a short-term period when their behaviour poses a real and substantial risk of harm to their safety and welfare.

Five children were living in the centre at the time of the inspection.

The unannounced inspection found there were sufficient numbers of staff during the day but reduced staffing at night presented a challenge to managing incidents during those hours.

Hiqa said this resulted in staff working later than they were scheduled to, in order to support their colleagues in managing incidents.

"In addition, managers and staff reported that due to reduced staffing, there was a reliance on An Garda Síochána to manage the safety of staff and young people when incidences escalated."

On-call managers were also scheduled to work daytime hours and sometimes presented for a day shift, having already worked into the early hours of the morning.

The Hiqa inspectors also found not all staff had relevant qualifications for the role.

“While the majority of staff were qualified, there remained a small number of staff who were not qualified.”

‘Significant risk’

Inspectors identified one “significant risk” regarding the management of allegations against staff. This was escalated to the acting national director for Children’s Residential Services.

In response, the service conducted a review of the circumstances and outlined to Hiqa the measures in place to ensure the safety of staff and children.

Inspectors also found that not all staff had up-to-date training in child protection guidelines and five staff members had not received any training in the 2011 Children First guidelines.

There were 35 incidents of absconding from the unit since the last inspection in September last year, with 22 of these relating to two children. At the time of inspection, one young person was missing from care.

The inspectors said children were cared for by a “committed staff team”. It was evident children developed good relationships with staff and, in the main, they were “supported to positively manage their behaviour”.

Children’s right to complain was respected and encouraged by the unit but there was a need to clarify some aspects of the complaints policy.