WHEN CHILDREN are admitted to the care system, the State takes on the hugely important duty of providing for their welfare.
Yet, even a cursory examination of internal reports by Health Service Executive childcare managers shows that many young people are being failed by a dysfunctional system. The gaps in child protection are immense. Many vulnerable young people with complex needs are not in proper residential care and are waiting years for specialist therapy. Thousands of reports of suspected child abuse are being added to waiting lists due to shortages of social workers. Family support services, seen as key to preventing children ending up in care, are patchy in most areas and non-existent in others.
It may be unsurprising to learn that child protection services are under strain or that children at risk are not receiving the kind of support they urgently need. But it is a surprise to discover that services appear to be getting worse at a time when we are debating the need to strengthen children’s rights and learn from the mistakes of institutional child abuse.
Following the publication of the Ryan report into institutional child abuse, the Government pledged to ensure it would tackle many of the problems which blighted the childcare system. Among its many promises are to increase the number of social workers, ensure all children have care plans and place the so-called Children First guidelines on a statutory footing. Many of the planned measures are not new. Pledges to introduce better co-operation between State agencies, a standardised approach to dealing with abuse concerns and more emphasis on preventive measures have been features of previous reports which have been ignored.
Successive governments have been strong on rhetoric, yet have failed to ensure the proper workings and application of child protection laws and services. The scale of public revulsion at the findings of the Ryan report and a public pledge by a Government Minister to take direct responsibility for implementing the new measures, gives some grounds for hope that political will exists to follow through on these pledges. Only time will tell.
In the absence of this kind of fundamental change, gaps will remain. Social work teams will continue to be unable to respond to hundreds of cases of abuse because they are overloaded with work. Children with mental health problems will wait years for assessment. And families under strain will come to the attention of health authorities when it is too late.