HIQA has said it has grave concerns about child protection services in Louth and Meath.
The Health Information and Quality Authority published a report recently on its inspection of the child protection and welfare services provided to children living in direct provision accommodation in four of the Child and Family Service areas, namely Louth/Meath, Midlands, Sligo/Leitrim/West Cavan and Dublin North City.
The authority says around 14% of the population of children living in these centres were referred to the Child and Family Agency in one year, compared to 1.6% for the general child population.
In the year to August 2014, there were around 1,600 children living in direct provision accommodation. Of these, there were 209 referrals of child protection and welfare concerns relating to 229 children.
Among the issues identified were physical or mental illness of a parent impacting on capacity to provide quality care for children, mental health issues for children and parents, isolation, and lack of clothes and toys.
Protection concerns included children being left alone for long periods of time as well as proximity of children to unknown adults living on the same site, and inappropriate contact by adults towards some children.
In Louth/Meath, there were significant delays in social work interventions. Of particular concern was that in 27 out of the 38 cases reviewed, children were not met with or seen by social workers to inform their decision making about the referral even though records indicated concerns about their safety and welfare.
There were significant delays in completing assessments and sharing information, which placed children at risk. In this area children did not all receive the services they needed, initial assessments were not completed and some risks were not addressed. In one case there were significant concerns about an allegation of physical abuse of two children and the case was closed without children being visited.
Mary Dunnion, Director of Regulation of HIQA said: “The quality of the child protection and welfare service provided to children across the four areas sampled in this inspection was radically inconsistent. The quality and level of service varied widely across the four areas visited. In the Midlands the service was mixed but in Louth/Meath the service was much poorer and some risks had not been identified and addressed by managers. There was no strategic plan in place to identify and meet the needs of this particularly vulnerable group of children and families.”
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