Child Welfare and Protection

Children in care are those children who are not living with their families but are in the care of the State. This includes those in residential care, foster care, hostel, high support and special care. They are a vulnerable group of children and as a result a child centred, comprehensive child protection service with sufficient supports and professionals must be in place to assist these children through childhood and into adulthood.

Key Statistics

  • In December 2011, there were 6,160 children in care and 93% of these had an allocated social worker and 90% had a written care plan in place. (Source: HSE Performance Report on NSP 2011)
  • 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.
  • In 2010, there was a total of 29,277 child protection and welfare reports to the HSE. A total of 16,452 of these reports related to concerns about a child’s welfare, while 12,825 were related to child protection concerns, that is, physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. Of the 12,825 cases related to child protection concerns, 1,556 were confirmed as abuse cases and notified to the child protection notification management team.

Issues

Child Welfare and Protection Agency

Having consistently called for the reform of the child welfare and protection system to ensure that accountability and responsibility are injected into service provision for vulnerable children, Barnardos welcomes the new Government’s commitment to such reform reflected in the Programme for Government and as articulated by the new Minister for Children.

Central to this reform will be the establishment of a dedicated child welfare and protection agency whose principles and work must be child centred and focus on addressing the gap between policy reform and implementation.

With successive crises having proven the current system’s inability to adequately respond to children’s needs, there is therefore an urgent need to rebuild trust and credibility in Ireland’s child welfare and protection systems.  

Social Work Services:

It is required – according to the National Standards for Foster Care 2003 and the Child Care Regulations 1996 – that a social worker be allocated and a care plan devised for each child in the care system. Currently, this does not always happen.

The absence of a dedicated social worker and care plan results in children staying in residential care for longer than necessary due to a lack of active ongoing care planning, or not searching for alternatives such as fostering or reunification with family or siblings. For the children it exacerbates their feelings of being alone and uninvolved in matters affecting them and subsequently uncertain about their future. Extra social workers are still required despite an additional 200 child protection social workers being recruited in 2010 and a further 60 being recruited in 2011.  

Out of Hours Social Work Service

Many incidences requiring social work intervention with families occur outside office hours. However, there is no nationwide out-of-hours social work service. The current provision is very ad hoc, relying on emergency foster care placement where available and the use of Garda services in other cases. The failure of the system to respond to calls for assistance from both families and children out-of-hours potentially puts children’s well-being and lives at risk. It is envisaged that the HSE out-of-hours social work service will be multidisciplinary linking with existing out-of-hours services such as GPs, acute hospital services and mental health services to respond to children’s needs. This inclusive model is welcomed but has yet to materialise.

Aftercare

Aftercare services are provided to children leaving the care system to assist and support them in their transition from care to an independent adult life. The wide range of supports needed include financial, accommodation, training and education and general advice and information. At present, the provision of services is inconsistent and erratic. Furthermore, under the Child Care Act 1991, the provision of aftercare is discretionary. Young people leaving the care system are particularly vulnerable and the absence of supports leaves them exposed to risks of homelessness, drug / alcohol addiction, prostitution or imprisonment.  Barnardos will continue to lobby for adequate aftercare provision for all vulnerable children leaving care. The HSE National Aftercare Policy is being rolled out but only 10 additional aftercare workers have been recruited. Also the Child Care (Amendment) Bill was passed in July 2011 and did not enshrine a legal entitlement to aftercare.  

Presentations from Juvenile Justice: Criminal and Welfare Concerns 2001-2011 Seminar

Policy Submissions and Reports

 

Campaigns

The Cloyne Report

The launch of the Cloyne Report clearly demonstrates that everyone working with children needs to be singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to implementing child welfare and protection systems. The State needs to establish clear legislation and standards that leave no room to hide for those who fail to protect children. Institutions in Ireland cannot continue to approach child protection in whatever way best suits them. We need a standard approach to child welfare and protection to which everyone must be boun.

Now is the time to get to work on getting Ireland’s systems right in child welfare and protection.

The Cloyne Report is available to download at the Department of Justice website.

Read the statement from Barnardos issued in response: Power to Protect.

Saving Childhood Ryan 2010

We are eight organisations working on behalf of children and survivors of abuse. In May 2010, we came together to mark the first anniversary of the Ryan Report.

Our aim is to lobby the Government to act on the recommendations they pledged to implement in the Ryan Implementation Plan - without delay.

The improvement of our child protection systems will ensure that all children are better protected from harm and abuse today and in the future.

www.savingchildhoodryan.ie  

Saving Childhood Ryan Report (May 2010, PDF 297KB)

Update on Saving Childhood Ryan Report (September 2010, PDF 26 KB)

Murphy Report and Response 2009

The Dublin Archdiocese Commision of Investigation was established to report on the handling by Church and State authorities of a representative sample of allegations and suspicions of child sexual abuse against clerics operating under the aegis of the Archdiocese of Dublin over the period 1975 to 2004. The report of the commission is in two parts. 

On 26th November 2009, the Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin Diocese report was published. More information and copies of the report as PDF's or in HTML can be found at http://www.dacoi.ie/

Below is the statement made by Barnardos on this issue.

"Enough is Enough. We Must Now Prioritise Children in Ireland."