More needs to be done to protect children

Much more needs to be done to protect and promote the rights and welfare of children in Ireland, the Ombudsman for Children, Emily Logan, has said.

Ms Logan made her comments following the publication of a report which investigated the implementation of Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children by the HSE and the monitoring of this implementation by the Office of the Minister for Children.

The guidelines were introduced by the Government in 1999 to provide guidance to staff working in the area of child protection. The report recognised that ‘substantial efforts' have been made at various times since 1999 to implement Children First.

"However, some of its conclusions are negative and a number of findings of unsound administration have been made by the Ombudsman for Children against the relevant public bodies," the report noted.

"It is the view of the Ombudsman for Children that much needs to be done to protect and promote children's rights and welfare. This is not simply a matter of resources. Some of the problems identified - variable practice, a lack of internal and external scrutiny and a failure of inter-agency collaboration - indicate a need for a fundamental change in culture and attitude towards child protection generally," Ms Logan said.

She noted that while some may claim that practice on the ground in Ireland is good, ‘in the absence of any internal or external audit we cannot know this for sure'.

"In the 11 years since the introduction of the Children First guidelines, case files from only one part of the country, and only on one occasion, have been audited to assess implementation on the ground. The result of that audit was worrying and yet did not prompt any further action nationally," she explained.

The Ombudsman's investigation examined a time period when health and social services were undergoing fundamental reform, in particular with the creation of the HSE. Ms Logan acknowledged that the health service is a complex organisation, but she also emphasised that change is a constant in any health service.

The report concluded that at times, child protection services ‘were not given priority in this reform process'.

"While it is acknowledged that efforts were made to implement Children First, critical momentum was lost in 2003. At the same time, it is acknowledged that since the launch of this investigation, a number of initiatives with positive potential are currently underway. It is important that this potential is realised. However, to date, there has been no shortage of analysis of what the problems are, but far less action to tackle them," Ms Logan said.

One area the investigation focused on was that of staffing. According to the report, the number of social workers in the State increased from 1,390 to 2,237 between 1999 and 2005 - an increase of 61%.

"This might lead one to believe that Ireland now has a large amount of social workers. However, it appears that Ireland was starting from a low base and the State still falls far behind its nearest neighbours. According to figures from 2005, the Irish rate was one social worker per 1,828 persons. In Northern Ireland, the figure was one social worker per 660 persons. In Scotland it was one social worker per 962 persons and in Wales one social worker per 1,325 persons."

Therefore while the Office of the Ombudsman said that it welcomes the commitment in the implementation plan for the Ryan Report to fill up to 270 posts currently vacant, it notes that this will still leave the number of social workers well below that of, for example, Northern Ireland.

Altogether, the report made 11 findings of ‘unsound administration' against the relevant public bodies and 22 recommendations to improve the system.

Responding to the report, the HSE said that it ‘correctly highlights that many services are not yet being delivered in a standardised or consistent manner across the country and are not complying fully with the procedures set out in Children First'.

However it added that its programme of work ‘to raise the bar for child and family services to the standard we need to is now well underway'.

Also commenting on the report, Fine Gael's spokesperson on children, Alan Shatter, described it as ‘another damning indictment of the State's failure to provide to children at risk the protection to which they are entitled'.

"It starkly exposes the abject failure of Government to take the steps necessary to ensure the consistent application of the Children First guidelines. It is yet again clear from this report that radical change and reform is required. It is also clear that neither the Minister for Children nor the HSE have yet recognised the need for both transparency and accountability in our childcare and protection services," Mr Shatter added.

For more information on the Office of the Ombudsman for Children or to see the full copy this report, click on http://www.oco.ie

[Posted: Wed 12/05/2010]