State childcare system ‘in crisis’ and vulnerable children ‘failing’, warns Children’s Law Project – The Irish Times

The state’s childcare system is in crisis and some of Ireland’s most vulnerable children are ‘falling through the cracks’, says latest report Children’s Law Project (CLP) warned.

The lack of suitable places has a “domino effect that risks collapsing the care system”, “a crisis is unfolding” and a “whole of government” response is urgently required, the report concluded, analyzing case trends over three years.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, CCThe Special Rapporteur for Child Protection, said: “This report sounds the alarm: some of Ireland’s most vulnerable children are being neglected. The key question now is how the state will respond.”

Ms Gallagher and District Court President Judge Paul Kelly will be among the speakers at Monday’s event to launch the report.

The report, entitled Falling Through the Cracks: An Analysis of Child Care Procedures 2021 to 2024, is a Garda investigation into a missing, presumed dead, eight-year-old child. Kieran Durnincontinues. The boy was not a ward of the state, but TuslaThe Agency for Children and Families previously worked with his family and provided the government with its reviews of that interaction.

Dr Maria Corbett, chief executive of the CLP, said she had seen cases of children thriving in care, but had also seen a “growing number of cases” where judges and other professionals were concerned that children were “falling through the cracks”.

“Serious gaps” in the state’s response to children include a “severe shortage” of foster care and residential care; the HSE’s “dismal response” to meeting the needs of children in care with disabilities, mental health and addictions; and “weak” interdepartmental cooperation.

Dr Corbett welcomed the Department for Children’s establishment of a cross-departmental committee on vulnerable children and progress in reforming the family justice system and child care law.

( O’Gorman said he would “take immediate action” following the Tasla investigation into Kieran Durnin.Opens in a new window )

However, there is still no “whole-of-government strategy for protecting children” and no road map to achieve the necessary legislative and policy changes to create a new model of intensive supported placements for children with complex needs and those at risk of exploitation. or human trafficking.

The report found that nearly one third of parents (29 percent) in child care cases suffered from a disability, of which two thirds had mental health problems and most of the rest had cognitive impairment.

CLP chief executive Dr Carol Coulter said appropriate support for vulnerable parents, particularly parents with disabilities, could help keep children in their families and meet Ireland’s international human rights obligations.

A CLP study of 38 district courts found that in more than 70 percent of these courts, child care cases are heard alongside other cases on often overcrowded dockets, despite the legal requirement that they be heard separately.

The report includes several anonymized case studies of children’s encounters with the legal system, including the two below.

Case Study One

It was about a boy with very serious behavioral problems, including an addiction to aerosols from the age of 10, an eating disorder and violent attacks on medical staff. He entered the care system at 14 and spent time in special care, detention and residential care. A psychologist concerned about his extreme emotional and behavioral problems found that both parents were unable to raise him due to his father’s health problems and domestic violence, as well as his mother’s traumatic past, alcohol and heroin abuse, and mental health problems.

When his case was reviewed, the district court concluded that the boy still had no Cams assessment and he was placed in a rest home because there was no suitable place available.

Practical example two

This case study concerned the making of full care orders for four young children from a family known to the Children and Families Agency for some time. All four had experienced serious adverse childhood events, their mother received extensive support and a safety plan was put in place for the children.

The agency’s concerns were that the family’s situation had “dramatically” deteriorated after the mother became involved with a man with a serious criminal record. In one case, while the mother and children were in a car with the mother’s friend, her boyfriend chased them and rammed their car. In another case, after he was arrested following a serious domestic violence incident, there were serious attacks on a mother’s home, including a bombing of her car. The custody orders were made based on evidence from social workers, police officers and a clinical psychologist.