Care system 'broken' and not working in 'best interests of children' - Ombudsman

Ottoline Spearman

The care system in Ireland is "broken" and "not operating in the best interests of children", a highly critical report by the ombudsman has found.

Children in the system have been sexually groomed and assaulted, disappeared for days, and been moved between many unregulated placements in short periods of time, the report says, which will be launched on Tuesday by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO).

In many cases, children are experiencing more harm after being taken into care, the report concludes.

It details cases of children being detained for years in secure care due to lack of onward placement, despite having committed no offence.

One such example is a case of two siblings who were accommodated in a centre with teenagers and 30 staff because there was no available foster home.

In the foreword, Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon asks: "How we have fallen so far as a country that we appear unable to provide a highly vulnerable child, in the care of the State, with a safe and stable place to live?”

The report says: “The care system in Ireland is broken for many children ... As it stands it is not operating in the best interests of children, and it is our experience that the care system is where the most profound breaches of all children rights are found.”

Almost 6,000 children are in care in Ireland, and are some of the most vulnerable in the country, the report says.

The report notes that the failures stem from severe shortages of social workers; lack of availability of placements, and difficulties recruiting and retaining residential care staff.

It also notes the growing reliance on private providers, the increasing numbers of children in unregulated placements, and inadequate supports for unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

The report also criticises Tusla saying: "A pattern emerges when we examine key statistics from Tusla over the past 10 years – a decline in foster care placements, an increase in children in residential care and a significant increase in the private provision of care.”

Tusla remains "chronically underfunded”, says the report, despite the doubling of child protection referrals, from 56,000 in 2015 to 106,000 last year.

Despite the budget increasing by 94 per cent in the decade, it is still "way behind" on what it should be.

Between 2021 and last year, Tusla received less than half (€571 million) of what it asked for in pre-budget estimates leaving a shortfall of €616 million.

A "robust consultation process" led by the Department of Children on the care system was announced in March, which "provides a pivotal moment for our care system and a once in a generation opportunity to get it right”.

The OCO says, with this, there is now a real opportunity to make a once in a generational change to the care system with the development of the Government’s first National Alternative Care Plan and a review of the 25-year-old legislation underpinning child protection in Ireland.

Mudoon says: “Children in care have already overcome so much in their short lives, so when the State steps into the role of parent, it is incumbent on them to make sure it does so, knowing with absolute certainty, that it can make those lives better.”