Tusla, the child and family agency, incorrectly copy and pasted a reference expressing concerns around “parental alcohol misuse” into the file of a single mother, who was seeking supports for her son, an internal review has found.
As The Irish Times reports, the mother contacted Tusla in early 2018 seeking supports for her then 15-year-old son, as he had behavioural issues and the relationship in the home had become difficult.
Social work records related to the case stated risks in the home included “concerns children are exposed to parental alcohol misuse”.
The mother, who does not drink alcohol due to a medical condition, was a single parent in the home with her two children at the time.
The reference to social workers’ fears of her “alcohol misuse” were repeated in several records in the family’s case file.
An internal review by Tusla, found the reference to parental alcohol abuse had been added into the case file due to a copy and pasting error.
Internal review
The reference to alcohol misuse had been left on a form that was used as a template by social workers. “When a copy was made of this template, it was not properly redacted and, as such, a reference to parental alcohol use was on this copied template,” the review said.
In a statement, Bernard Gloster, Tusla chief executive, apologised for “a number of failings” in how the agency handled the family’s case, “many of which were avoidable”, he said.
The internal review, completed on March 5th this year, found a number of entries in the family’s case file were incorrect, and should be amended.
The review was conducted by Patricia Finlay, Tusla regional service director, following a complaint from the mother.
In September 2018, one of the social workers in the case wrote to the Garda to report the family’s younger daughter was at risk of suspected emotional abuse.
However, a child protection conference, a key meeting attended by parents and social work professionals, held later that month, concluded neither of the children were at risk of abuse or harm.
