Tusla has seen a 14 per cent increase in referrals so far this year as compared to this time last year with the numbers expected to rise by 20 percent by the end of 2023, according to the interim CEO of the agency, Kate Duggan.
During a panel discussion at a Children’s Rights Alliance event in Cork today Ms Duggan indicated that Tusla has received 46,661 referrals so far this year.
“That is 46,661 children where somebody is concerned that they are suffering from neglect, where there is a concern about ability to thrive, where there is a concern that that child is being harmed.
"That is a 14 per cent increase on this time last year. We are seeing our referrals increasing year on year at ten, fourteen and fifteen percent. We expect at the end of this year to have had a 20 per cent increase in referrals compared to the end of 2022.
"We are seeing a significant increase in the demand for services. That is setting a very clear signal that all is not right in Ireland today when it comes to children and development and participation and their ability to be children. “
Ms Duggan said that post Covid, Tusla is seeing a “significant increase” in the number of people aged between 16 and 18, who were never in the care system, but whose families are now “volunteering them for care because they are unable to cope.”
“They (parents) see us as the State agency of last resort to try to help them to look after their children. We are concerned about it. It is emergency accommodation that is unregulated.
"There might be 60 to 65 young people in that accommodation. Last week alone 41 per cent of the young people were there because of a breakdown in their home arrangement. They have never been in the care system before.
"There is something changing in the dynamic of families unable to support an older age of young person and very often because of addiction issues, mental health issues or issues where they have started to become engaged and exploited by criminal gangs.”
Ms Duggan stressed that Tusla has carried out some great work since it was established nearly a decade ago. However, she acknowledged deficiencies in some services of the agency.
“Over the last number of years, we have seen an increase in the demand for our services. There are lots of children and lots of families who have benefited from the services that we provide. But there are also the children and families who haven’t always got the services they needed.
"I am very conscious of that and very much now on a programme of reform and trying to make things better around access to services.
"Children whose parents are for whatever reason unable to care for them. 3,800 children in homeless services, 4,800 children in Direct Provision …..we have seen a 500 percent increase in the number of separated children seeking international protection. “
Ms Duggan believes that Ireland can be “proud” of its foster care system. However, she emphasised the need for better supports for people who undertake this work.
“We have 5,595 children in the care of the State. 91 percent of those children are in foster care. And that is only because of the selflessness and the commitment and the dedication of foster carers right across the country.
Whether they are relative foster carers. Whether they are foster carers who enter in to caring for children. That is something we are very proud of. We are also very conscious that it needs to be looked after.
Where a parent is unable to care or look after their child for a particular length of time we want as many of those children as we can in foster care.”
Meanwhile, Ms Duggan said that Tusla has experienced issues around obtaining appropriate residential service places for young people.
“We also have children in care who need to access residential services because it is the right service for them. Some children in care find it difficult to live and thrive in another family dynamic. We are seeing a significant challenge in our duty to provide appropriate residential care services and it may be appropriate in terms of the residential environment.
"We are seeing too many children having to leave their communities, their social networks, their local support systems to move to a residential facility in another location. We are also seeing a number of children and young people who because of the trauma that they have endured or because of other issues like addiction or exploitation of drugs gangs like we are seeing in Dublin where they are also unable to stay and live in mainstream residential places.
"What we are starting to see as well is a changed environment in terms of the risks in terms of online safety. The risks in terms of child exploitation whether that is sexual exploitation, whether that is criminal exploitation, whether that is human exploitation.”
She added that their reform programme is very much centred on increasing their placement capacity, maintaining a better support to their foster carers and looking at new models of care, particularly for separated children seeking international protection.
“And very much how we grow our workforce and not just grow our social work workforce which is a critical essential component. But how do we support the increase in referrals?
"The 45 percent of those that need a welfare response, who need early intervention, they need access to addiction services, they need access to other types of services and professionals. So, for the next three years a very firm focus will be on that. “
