Decisive early intervention needed to save at-risk young

We are allowing a system to chew up and spit out children, despite the efforts of many front line staff

THERE WAS more than a hint of Jonathan Swift’s saevo indignatio about Alan Shatter’s decision to publish the report on Tracey Fay.

Satire was Swift’s chosen weapon to alert people to the desperate straits of the Irish poor. He famously proposed that children a year old should be sold for meat to provide a family income, and that the skin of older, tougher children of 14 could be used for hides.

But the events of Tracey’s life are beyond satire. We are allowing a system to chew up and spit out children, despite the efforts of many front line staff.

On radio this week, Maura Butterly, a now retired social worker who dealt with Tracey, spoke of how Tracey appeared so much younger than her years, so utterly vulnerable, and especially open to sexual exploitation.

As it transpired, Tracey ended up in prostitution and working for a pimp, and gave birth to two children, all while allegedly in the care of the HSE. Terrifyingly, Butterly spoke of Tracey’s case as “the tip of the iceberg”. Time and again, we have heard professionals warn ominously that there may be children on our streets tonight as neglected as Tracey.

What children like Tracey need is an “EAST” approach – everything at the same time. An unco-ordinated piecemeal approach that does not take extended family and community strengths into account at the earliest stage is doomed to failure.

There is a tendency among conservatives, in the main, to blame family and community breakdown for situations like this, and a tendency among liberals to blame primarily poverty and lack of adequate State systems.

Both are right, and initiatives to tackle disadvantage need to happen at the same time as initiatives to strengthen families, and promote stable marriages.

When family structures are fragile, and community support is missing, a child is at risk from the start. It takes a family and a community to raise a child. The State cannot parent, and by the time teenagers are taken into care, many are so damaged that they are extremely difficult to help.

Both conservatives and liberals believe the early years are vital. Alarm bells should have rung from the beginning. According to the report, Tracey’s mother was a very immature 25-year-old when she gave birth to Tracey.

The child’s father never had involvement. Tracey’s mother then had children with two more men, at least one of whom was severely abusive. The sibling born after Tracey was put up for adoption, but no attempt was made to investigate the care being given to Tracey.

All of these things should have screamed out as risk factors. It is well-documented that non-related males in a household pose the biggest threat to children. Tracey’s mother’s partner was abusive of her.

Perhaps the most shocking thing is that Tracey first came to the attention of social services when she was eight months old, and then again at 13 months. The report says that “such factors as obvious familial discord and distress; the concerns of experienced children’s nurses and children’s hospital staff; the reluctance of the mother to actually engage with the social work services, would be more than sufficient to have the concerns considered in a child protection context”.

When Tracey’s grandmother expressed fears, this was ignored, as was an admission by Tracey’s mother to her child’s teacher that she had knocked out the child’s front teeth before she was eight. No notice was taken when the teacher reported that the mother had found blood on the child’s underpants.

It was not reported to the Garda nor treated as a child protection issue, in breach of 1987 guidelines. Social services stated to the teacher that previous allegations had “been found to be untrue”, so no action was taken. Given Tracey’s subsequent highly sexualised behaviour and approaches to men of all kinds, it is quite possible she was abused early on.

How is it, despite repeated failures by Irish services (at least five missed opportunities by the time she was seven), that when Tracey was taken to England by her mother at age eight, she was on a child protection register within a very short period of time?

One of the most heartbreaking quotes is the description by the English services in 1991 of Tracey as “a bouncy, energetic eight-year-old who was very articulate”. By 1997, the English services said she “now presents as an isolated, lethargic, and frightened adolescent who expressed feeling of hopelessness”.

By 2001, Tracey was so out of control that the health board was willing to pay €2,000 a month for private tuition for her. At times she had 24-hour care from several staff on her own. Imagine if a fraction of these resources had gone into early intervention.

A great deal of the grief, chaos, violence and sadness in Tracey’s life could have been prevented. She would not have ended up as a small, bruised corpse in a disused coal bunker.

I don’t think resignations are always the answer in situations like this, but it is striking that there has been no apology from the HSE, nor any attempt to sanction, much less force resignations from people involved who were identified as having failed this child.

It could all have been so different. Imagine if a whole series of interventions had swung into place long before she was eight months old. There is an excellent volunteer scheme called Community Mothers, where older local women support vulnerable new mothers.

Imagine if an intensive version of that help was available to Tracey’s mother in her child’s first weeks and months. Imagine if her mother got focused parenting skills training. If all else failed, imagine if Tracey went into carefully chosen foster care very early on, instead of shambolic “care” in her mid-teens. Imagine if, when Tracey went to school, she was in small classes, and any learning difficulties she had were identified and targeted.

Imagine if liberals and conservatives joined forces to protect children we all care about.

And imagine if no more children had to die because of our lack of saevo indignatio.

bobrien@irishtimes.com