Children at risk in Offaly and other Midland counties due to incorrect reporting by TUSLA

A Health Information and Quality Authority report reveals that children in Offaly and other Midlands counties are at serious risk due to TUSLA's failure to properly report cases.

In October 2023 HIQA requested data on the numbers of cases which were not allocated to a professionally qualified social worker in each of the Tusla areas, including the Midlands area.

The figures provided by Tusla, indicated that the Midlands area child protection and welfare service had 11% of cases not allocated to professionally qualified social workers.

From November 2023 to July 2024 the data published on the Tusla website and provided to HIQA showed that in the Midlands child protection and welfare service unallocated cases did not rise above 16%. However, these figures were not accurate and in fact they exceeded 25% on a number of occasions and should have been included in HIQA's provider programme.

HIQA inspectors were able to review some of the experiences of children, who as a result of being placed on a waiting list, or as a result of not being allocated in a timely way, experienced delays in receiving a child protection and welfare service.

A child was referred due to concerns for physical abuse. The case was screened within 24 hours and deemed to be medium priority and was awaiting allocation for preliminary enquiry to be completed. This child had previously been referred to the service with information on the file to indicate domestic violence in the home. While this case had been reviewed twice by a manager in the previous six weeks, no action was taken such as contacting the referrer or contacting the mother to establish the current situation. The level of risk was unknown for that child and they had not received any service to address their needs or assess the risks.

A very young child who was referred in September 2024 due to concerns of domestic violence in the home. At the time of the inspection the case was awaiting initial assessment and no home visit had been completed and there was no safety plan in place for the child. The impact on the level of risk for this small child was unknown. When inspectors raised concerns, a home visit was completed during the inspection and a safety plan was put in place.

A teenager was living in a home where they were allegedly exposed to domestic abuse. While a preliminary enquiry had been completed, at the time of the inspection the case was unallocated awaiting an initial assessment. While there was a safety plan in place, there had been no monitoring of this safety plan in four months. This case was escalated and contact was made with the family.

A young child living at home where there were concerns that they were not attending medical appointments or preschool. There was a delay of two months before any action was taken on the information. When a home visit was completed immediate action was required and a safety plan was put in place.

A very young child was referred due to concerns that their parents were not meeting their basic needs. It was six weeks before any contact was made with the family to establish the level of the concerns.

Over the course of the inspection seven cases were identified by inspectors where the level of concern for the children necessitated escalating the cases for the attention of the area manager. All of these cases had been unallocated at the time of the inspection and were waiting for preliminary enquiry or initial assessments to be completed. Three of the cases were allocated to a social worker immediately and all of the cases had actions completed to ensure children’s safety.

These cases illustrate how, due to the area not having capacity to complete assessments in a timely manner, children and young people had to wait long periods of time for the right interventions, said HIQA.

Speaking about the report, Gerry Hone, Interim Director of Services and Integration,Tusla, said: “Oversight by HIQA assists us in striving for the best possible standards. However, on this occasion, due to challenges related to the increasing volume of referrals and the capacity of the service to deal with this increase in demand, we have not reached the standards expected.

“All unallocated cases are subject to oversight.Tusla continues to be proactive in its efforts to address challenges in capacity, and as part of this the Agency has moved to a more multi-disciplinary way of working. As such, Children and young people may be allocated social workers and other professional roles, such as social care leaders, under the supervision of social workers, as needed.

''Locally, we have taken a number of steps to address the issues identified, and significant efforts are underway in the area to increase capacity and efficiencies.''

Tusla has embarked on an integrated reform programme (2023 – 2026) which aims to ensure timely, equitable, integrated and consistent practice across the service areas. A key pillar of the reform programme was the design and implementation of the Local Integrated Service Delivery Model, to review the structure and practice of frontline service delivery. This is to ensure that children, young people and families had better access to integrated services, to promote more positive outcomes, to ensure resources were utilised more efficiently and to better support Tusla staff.''