We can assess the extent to which the Pillars care for vulnerable people in our society by observing where they allocate money. Yes …… where they allocate money!
Of all highly educated and necessary public servants in Ireland, nurses are arguably the most overworked and underpaid. I believe that the reason for this is that young people (the majority of whom are women – but increasingly, and thankfully, men) who choose nursing as a career are very often caring people whose desire to help people is greater than their desire to make money and/or have power.
Like all such people, their natural goodness is taken for granted and when funding is being cut the Pillars know they will not let anyone die.
And if we ever wondered how little the Pillars care about protecting vulnerable people including children we now, after the 2008-2011 recession, know with certainty – when vulnerable children were among the first to suffer when funding was cut from various services. Hopefully things will be a little different if we have to tighten our belts post-Covid.
I could come up with many examples (in housing, health, education etc.) that show how the Pillars, (who hugely influence day-to-day decision making in respect of practice) don’t really have the best interests of vulnerable people at heart.
If they really cared, their decisions would be different because their priorities would be different.
Follow the money!
They will argue, of course, that they do care. And they may point to the fact that they spend a considerable amount of money improving the lot of vulnerable children.
For example, in 2012 we held a referendum to enshrine children’s rights into our Constitution. We were informed that, for the first time, the Constitution will take a child-centred approach to the protection of all children and will allow the State to better support families that are struggling, rather than wait for a situation to reach crisis point [1]. While I voted yes in the referendum I seriously wondered if we really needed a national plebiscite to choose to protect vulnerable children. I also wondered what a child that is suffering would think about the state spending lots of money on a referendum to protect him.
It was interesting that the Pillars were 100% for the referendum. This was truly, bureaucracy in its purest form at work.
Also at considerable expense, the Agency to protect children in Ireland underwent restructuring from being a division of the Health Service Executive to being an autonomous organisation (TÚSLA) some years ago. Did any child or vulnerable family notice? Is it leading to better outcomes for children growing up in families in the Focus Group?
(Please see Sub-Chapter 10, Conclusion – in this Chapter – to glean my opinions on this).
Our Government has put a lot of time, effort and money into making reporting of child abuse mandatory. This is significantly undermined by the actions of the State itself.
What I mean is, if a mother who is struggling with poverty, low self-esteem, a legacy of family violence and abuse, and homelessness is seen to be neglecting her children, the State’s response will be (to at least try) to put a stop to it. However, if I, a child protection practitioner, observe the State, (because of its economic, educational or social policies), to be causing harm to children, I am powerless to do anything about it.
Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have a referendum, a stand-alone body to protect children, or mandatory reporting; I just believe that what is needed to protect children is a major cultural change – not really constitutional, structural or legal changes.
And I don’t really see how autonomy (i.e. by setting up of TÚSLA) can make that big a difference if everyone working within the organisation has the best interests of vulnerable children at heart!
So it’s not that they don’t care; it’s just that their caring priorities, and/or the way they care are different to what children and vulnerable families need.
Before I finish this post and discuss cultural change, I’d like to repeat that there are many, many individuals working within the Pillars who passionately and sincerely voice concerns about injustice, inequality, lack of common sense etc. Such people, to my mind, are like gold dust – because they both care for vulnerable people and they have influence among statutory services.
[1]. This phrase is taken from a document issued by the Children’s Rights Alliance.