'Shameful' neglect that leaves 5,000 children in care

Independent.ie

By Dearbhail McDonald
Tuesday July 10 2007

In a rare insight into the plight of troubled children, Judge Conal Gibbons also revealed that neglect is the principal reason why over 5,000 Irish children are in care.

In addition, around 200 "separated children", unaccompanied minors in the care of the State from countries around the world, are in care at any one time.

Following neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse are the main reasons children are put in care.

Judge Gibbons, a Dublin District Court judge who presides over many of the capital's child care cases, said: "It is appalling to hear of children who are supposed to be in the care of the HSE availing of bed and breakfast accommodation, the out-of-hours emergency accommodation service, despite the provisions of section five of the Child Care Act, which could not be clearer with respect to the HSE responsibility for homeless children."

Neglect

He also warned that little or no communication between social workers and assigned teams in different areas could give rise to a situations where children die from neglect.

The murder of Victoria Climbie, (8), who died after severe physical neglect, prompted the largest review of child protection arrangements in Britain.

An inquiry later found that on at least 12 occasions care workers could have saved the girl's life.

"I accept that social workers and the HSE do a difficult job and people do not become social workers in order to make money; they are caring people," said Judge Gibbons, whose remarks were published in Family Law Matters, a courts service initiative to shed light on the operation of Ireland's secretive family law courts.

"A case as tragic as Victoria Climbie does not appear to have happened here as far as I am aware, but we have a system not unlike that in the UK where social workers are dealing with impossibly large caseloads, in a climate of scarce resources and crisis management.

Foster care

"Much media attention is focused on the terrible abuses that happened in the recent past in various residential homes, and on the awful sexual abuse of children, but little attention is paid to the trials and tribulations of families in crisis today," said the judge.

In almost six-out-of-10 cases, children are placed in care at the request of or with permission of their parents.

Some 43pc of care orders arise as a result of court proceedings and Judge Gibbons revealed that the vast majority of cases that come before the court at interim care order stage end with care orders being issued.

Of the 5,060 children in care in Ireland, only 442 are in residential care, with the vast majority of children being in some form of foster care. A small number are cared for at home under supervision.

Judge Gibbons procured the figures from the HSE and presented them to colleagues at the Judicial Studies Institute.

Judge Gibbons, who praised the work of fellow judges who "have ploughed a furrow in the apparently barren soil of children's rights," said that the children who come before the courts arising from care proceedings are "on the edge".

"I describe these children as being on the edge; they are on the edge of society, on the edge of their families, on the edge of the care system and often on the edge of their lives. It takes one little push to put them over the precipice".

- Dearbhail McDonald