Analysis: The same issues have plagued Tusla and the provision of services for children in care for more than a decade
In 2023, Tusla Child and Family Agency CEO Kate Duggan declared that the service was in crisis. Simon Harris, then Minister for Further and Higher Education, said that this admission "should stop the government in its tracks". Well, now is as good of a time as any....
The first order of business for Norma Foley, the new Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth of Ireland, must be getting to grips with this crisis. Unfortunately the same issues have plagued Tusla for more than a decade.
These include lack of appropriate and stable placements, lack of supports and services for children in care, lack of inter-agency collaboration and a distressing rise in Special Emergency Accommodations (SEAs), unregulated emergency housing for children in care. The situation has deteriorated to the point that Tusla have been taken to court for failures in securing care and education for children.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News at One, a new report shows that Tusla failed to implement policies which placed children in care at risk
Fortunately for the new minister, advocates, experts and researchers know what needs to be done. They've also been making the same recommendations for more than a decade with little to no movement. But it doesn't have to be this way: the department could be so bold as to act on the recommendations it has sat on for decades and the minister could lead this charge. Though the new programme for government includes a commitment to develop a national plan on alternative care, the minister must be more ambitious for the main issue at hand, the crisis within Tusla itself.
An independent review of our alternative care system
No national plan has a hope for success without reviewing the current system and how it has fallen into this perpetual state of crisis. Las year, the Children's Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association (CRAVA) called for an independent review, pointing to a drastic change to the quality of care for children since the 2007 recession.
Let’s take what we learned from the Ryan Report and use it. The independent nature of an independent review is key here as it would allow for all sources, from children to family to professionals, to be honest and open without internal politics getting in the way.
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From RTÉ News in May 2024, Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon says State is failing to meet its commitments and obligations to children with disabilities and in State care
A plan for the education of children in care
As previously reported, there is no school policy for children in care and neither the Department of Education nor the Department of Children seem to take responsibility on this issue. Members of the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth admitted to me in research interviews that they had never discussed the education of children in care. There is no record that members of the Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science had broached the subject either.
Now that the new Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, has had Youth added to her portfolio, it seems a perfect time to break with the status quo and acknowledge the existence of children in care within the education system. This should start with the Social Inclusion Unit, and develop a long-term education strategy for children in care who exist outside of the current DEIS model of disadvantage.
In the short term, the Regional Education and Language Team (REALT) have been deployed to aid Ukrainian children and children seeking international protection in finding school placements and additional community-based supports across Ireland. They are ready and willing to work with the Tusla Education Support Service and the Department of Education to do the same for children in care. All they need is the go ahead.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland in July 2023, growing frustration by judiciary in relation to welfare of children in care
Develop and properly fund alternative care
The crisis within alternative care in Ireland cannot be overstated and the root cause is continuous and historic underfunding, particularly from by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Unregulated emergency accommodations are a financial drain on the system and pose a risk to the safety of children living in them. There are not enough residential placements in the country, leading to instability and further risk of harm. This also results in children with a high level of support need not receiving the services they are entitled to.
Credit where credit is due, the new Government does appear to acknowledge the current issues with alterative care. It could be argued that this proposed plan by the government is not new or visionary but rather a delayed response to an ongoing crisis.
All of these issues stem from the State's failure to recognise children in care as a specific and unique group with their own particular needs
Back in 2013, the Ombudsman for Children's Office recommended that "the Health Service Executive/Child and Family Agency urgently develops a strategic development plan for residential child care services which would shape the future direction of services, plan for the provision of sufficient services in locations throughout the country and ensure that the needs of children and young people are met."
All three of these issues stem from the State’s overarching failure to recognise children in care as a specific and unique group with their own particular needs. The good news, as said earlier, is we know what needs to be done. Those advocating for Ireland’s most vulnerable children have been begging for these changes for more than a decade. The new minister has the opportunity to make history and finally do something about it.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
