One day I was listening to a debate on the radio about how the new Child and Family Agency in Ireland, TÚSLA, would protect children better – now that it was a stand-alone organisation with its own structure instead of being an adjunct of the Health Service Executive.
As I was interested in this subject I turned up the volume a bit and paid attention.
The soon-to-be Chief of TÚSLA, the then Ombudsman for Children, a legal expert, and an academic were taking part in the discussion. Their sincerity, commitment and enthusiasm was evident throughout the programme. They spoke about real reform. Every conceivable facet of the considerable challenge of protecting vulnerable children was explored.
For example:
1. The role of teachers, particularly primary teachers was discussed. They were often the first to notice if children are being abused, neglected, exhibiting sudden behaviour change, absent for a long time etc. – A good start.
2. The priorities of the Ombudsman for Children were listed, as was the value of the independence of the Office in dealing with complaints and promoting children’s rights. – Excellent stuff!
3. On the legislative front, we were told that the new body would adhere to European legislation in respect of vulnerable members of our society – and how much work had been put into this. – Well – some relevance, but a bit removed, perhaps?
4. There was great enthusiasm for an early warning system where social workers would be part of a referral pathway so that children at risk would be identified prior to their circumstances deteriorating to the point where they may be going into state care. – Now we’re getting places!
5. We were assured that the issue of demarcation in respect of union membership by different arms of the child protection system, e.g. clinical vs. administration, had been resolved – and this was stated to be a particular achievement worth noting as this very issue had held up other innovative initiatives proposed by Government in other spheres. – Might be good for morale – once again a bit removed, but sure if it helps it helps.
6. The integration of Health, Education and Youth Justice, was – we were informed – vital to the project of protecting vulnerable children. In this integration process, multi-disciplinary teams (consisting of social workers, Gardaí, educational psychologists, social care workers, teachers, family therapists and other experts) were seen as the way forward. – To be honest I felt a bit depressed that this had to be spelt out and wasn’t happening already.
7. It was stated that the method of recording of child protection cases would be improved so that we would never again lose any information on a child that was in the system. – This sounded useful and very doable.
8. The fact that there were so many social worker vacancies unfilled was seen to be something that would have to be addressed in order to ensure that TÚSLA would work to its optimum. – Could be positive all right.
9. The struggle that social workers have in accessing families in communities was mentioned as something that might inhibit good protection of children – though as far as I remember no ideas were proposed as to how families might be accessed. – Major disappointment here I’m afraid!
Now, to my mind, (and I am sure that you will all agree), 1 to 8 will not happen (and/or are irrelevant) unless 9 happens. In fact, this is by far the most important one.
To think otherwise would be like building a garage to service cars and expecting the mechanics to fix them without letting them near the engines!
In the next post I will develop this point a little.