An inspection of a children's care facility in Dublin could not find any evidence that staff had received Garda clearance. Nor was there evidence that references had been sought before they were employed.
The staffing arrangements for looking after a teenage boy in the unnamed home came in for severe criticism by the Social Services Inspectorate following an inspection last October.
According to the Northern Area Health Board, all staff working in the facility have since received Garda clearance and many of the issues in the report have been addressed.
The staff were employed in what was described as a "special arrangement" for the teenage boy. The arrangement was set up at the request of the High Court because a suitable place could not be found for the boy. He was being cared for in a house in a terrace of five owned by the health board.
The report found that no steps had been taken to see if the staff were suitable for the work "or even whether there was anything about them to suggest that they could pose a threat to the safety of the young person".
It found that the staff were not selected in accordance with accepted procedures and were not adequately supervised.
They were all nurses, mainly psychiatric, and many worked their days off in the special arrangement. The arrangement was also "extraordinarily expensive", the report found. "Inspectors calculated, on the basis of information supplied, that the cost of staffing the special arrangement with three nurses per day was in excess of €780,000 per annum."
The report expressed concern at the boy's isolation and said his education arrangements were inappropriate.
The inspection also included a children's residential centre in the same terrace, which was set up to provide emergency and short-term care for girls. While the report praised many of the care practices in this facility, it raised concerns about the healthcare of the children and found one girl's care plan was produced well outside the required timescale.
In all, 26 recommendations were made by the Social Services Inspectorate, including more training for staff and monitoring of standards. It also recommended that the health board appoint its own staff, rather than relying on ad-hoc arrangements.
A health board spokesman said the board welcomed the report and and had since strengthened its policies and procedures. The teenage boy had made good progress, he added, and was due to return home next month.
