The head of Tusla has admitted the agency is now at "crisis point" after an outgoing judge wrote to numerous government ministers and other State agencies expressing his "utmost concern" over the welfare of some children in care and the likelihood of future legal challenges as a result of current "systemic" shortcomings.
Judge Dermot Simms, who has since retired from the Dublin Metropolitan District Court, sent the detailed letter accompanied by related documents after he had been told in court by the Child and Family Agency of an "unprecedented crisis" faced by Tusla.
Judge Simms said the issue is primarily due to a lack of properly regulated suitable placements for foster care, residential placements and special (secure) care, and unfilled posts in Tusla, alongside a shortage of qualified personnel and staff retention issues.
The letter, published by the Child Law Project alongside its latest volume of reports, argues that "systemic failures" not limited to Tusla but also involving interaction between other State agencies, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) and the Prison Service, had contributed to the current crisis.
He also referred to issues with Gardaí and its communication with Tusla on the progress of child sex abuse complaints and adequate monitoring of children in care, "especially where there is evidence of children engaged in prostitution".
The judge specifically referred to "unapproved and unregulated" special emergency arrangements (SEAs), suggesting there could be as many as 130 of these placements.
These involve children staying in hotels, B&Bs, holiday centres, activity centres, and non-Tusla registered or privately leased properties, where they are supervised by either Tusla staff, private provider or a community a voluntary provider.
According to the CLP, as of last April there were 55 children in care in SEAs and a further 78 unaccompanied minors seeking international protection in SEAs.
'Utmost concern'
Referring to the difficulty to securing a suitable placement for a nine-year-old boy and also to what Tusla described in a court as the "unsuitable placement" of a six-year-old girl in an SEA, the judge wrote that "these types of cases, too numerous to outline, have featured in the court on a daily basis".
Judge Simms said he had the "utmost concern for the immediate predicament and welfare of children who are in care" and that it required "immediate and coordinated action" to address the crisis.
He added: "There is also the risk, or indeed likelihood, that the State will face claims in the future arising out of its failure to comply adequately with its duty of care and statutory duty to many of these children."
Responding to the publication of the CLP report and Judge Simms’s intervention, Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan said the agency was now at a "crisis point".
Ms Duggan echoed the praise of Judge Simms for frontline social workers and others working with vulnerable children "within the resources available", but admitted that Tusla now faced "unprecedented challenges".
Ms Duggan said these included an increasing referral rate, an inadequate supply of emergency and alternative care placements, an increase in the number of separated children seeking international protection, and workforce supply issues, particularly in Social Work and Social Care. She also referred to more children with more complex needs.
"This increase in demand for services, in the context of wider societal issues such as the housing crisis, global movement, poverty, domestic and gender-based violence, drugs, criminality and exploitation, have placed the agency at a crisis point," Ms Duggan said.
"However, we continue to work hard to mitigate risks, and to engage with other state agencies and departments, to seek to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society receive a timely and appropriate response," she added.
Human rights obligations
The CLP said the issuing of the letter and the associated documents to the Ministers for Children, Health, Justice and Public Expenditure, as well as the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and other bodies, including Hiqa, was "unusual".
The chief executive of the Child Law Project, Dr Maria Corbett, said: "We share the judge’s concerns and echo his call for urgent action. Our reports illustrate that the lack of appropriate placements is having a detrimental effect on the care system."
The CLP published the letter from the now-retired judge with his permission, and Ms Corbett said the latest batch of court reports included examples of placements ending in an unplanned manner, children being placed far from their families, and vulnerable children in unregistered emergency settings, which fall outside of the usual inspection regime.
"Such practices undermine 20 years of progress and risk Ireland breaching its international human rights obligations," Dr Corbett said.
The latest CLP volume details examples of parental mental health, parental addiction, homelessness and domestic violence.
In one case a judge lifted the in-camera rule to allow a child’s guardian ad litem (GAL) to bring a complaint to the Ombudsman for Children after a nine-year-old boy from Dublin was moved to a privately-run residential placement in the north-west of the country, far from his family, and was then abruptly moved to another placement in the south-east.
In another case the placement of a teenage girl ended so abruptly that she was at school at the time and was not allowed to return for her belongings, which had been placed in black plastic bags — a situation described by the girl's guardian ad litem as "devastating".
