CHILDHOOD FACTS

It is sometimes hard to imagine what the reality of life is like for the children Barnardos works with. Here are some facts which illustrate the challenges so many of them face.
Educational Disadvantage
Child Protection
Child Poverty
Access to services and support 

Educational Disadvantage

Children living in disadvantage still face stark inequalities of opportunities and outcomes in education. They are more likely to have difficulties in areas such as literacy and numeracy, to leave school early and they are far less likely to progress to university or other higher education options.

Educational Disadvantage. The Facts

• 1 in 3 children living in disadvantaged areas leave school with severe difficulties with basic reading and writing.
• 1 in 5 children across the country leave secondary school without completing the Leaving Certificate.
• People who leave school early are three to four times more likely to be unemployed than their more highly educated peers.
• Early school leavers are more likely to suffer ill-health than those with higher levels of education.
• Early school leavers have a higher risk of getting involved in crime; one study of Mountjoy prison indicated that 80% of those interviewed had left school before the age of 16, 50 % before the age of 15 and 75% had never sat a State exam.[1]
• Up to 1,000 children do not transfer from primary to secondary school.

Child Protection

All children have a right to live free of fear, neglect and abuse. Children and young people are among the most vulnerable members of our society, and that is why it is a societal responsibility to ensure our laws, policies and services offer the best protection to insulate them from those who would exploit or harm them.

Child Protection. The Facts

• There were 1,797 confirmed incidents of child abuse reported in 2006; this increased to 1,978 in 2007 and rose again to 2,164 in 2008.
• In 2008, there were 5,347 children in the care of the HSE. Of these, 4,742 children were in foster care and 381 were in residential care. 1,940 children in care were in care for 5 years or more 1,236 were in care for less than one year.
• In 2008, 34% of children in residential care and 36% of children in foster care did not have an individual care plan.
• The most predominant reasons children were admitted to Care were the categories of Parent Unable to Cope/ Family Difficulty re Housing/Finance, Neglect of Child, Family Member Abusing Drugs/Alcohol, Child with Emotional/Behavioural problems and Physical Abuse of Child.
• As of April 2010 there were approximately 5,700 children in care - 84% of these had an allocated social worker, leaving 912 children without this support.
• One in three women and one in four men reported some level of sexual abuse in childhood.
• 25% of perpetrators of sexual abuse were another child or adolescent (17 years old or younger).

Child Poverty. The Facts

• In 2008, 6.3% of children continued to live in consistent poverty in Ireland. This amounts to 65,270 children. This compares with a consistent poverty rate of 1.7% among persons aged 65-74 and 1% among persons aged 75 or over. 
• Consistent poverty means that these children are living in households with incomes below 60% of the national median income and experiencing deprivation based on the agreed eight deprivation indicators. This can mean going 24 hours without a substantial meal or being cold because parents are unable to afford to heat the home.
• Children account for 38.7% of all those in consistent poverty.
• Children continue to be the age-group most at risk of poverty, with a rate of 18% in 2008. This compares with an at risk poverty rate of 13.5% among people of working age.
• Many of those on low incomes cannot afford to bring their child to the doctor, dentist or optician.
• Traveller children continue to face hardship, discrimination and inequality, infant mortality is twice the norm and only 20% of Traveller children go to secondary school.

Access to services and support

While we do everything we can to support the children we work with sometimes children have very specific needs which require specialist. In these instances we advocate on behalf of the children and families we work with to get access to these services but this can be difficult and the impact on children great:

• The waiting lists for assessments such as psychological and psychiatric assessments are approximately 14 months which means that medical conditions are not detected early and can have a detrimental impact on a child's development.
• Hundreds of children are living in substandard accommodation. Over 59,000 families are currently on the waiting list for social housing. Damp, overcrowded, poor quality housing affects children's health and well-being.

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