MORE THAN 1,000 children in State care have no dedicated social worker due to staff shortages and heavy case loads among child protection teams.
Social workers and child protection campaigners say staff shortages are placing vulnerable children at risk, as they are missing out on proper needs assessments and foster families are not being properly vetted.
However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) says the majority of the estimated 4,700 children in foster care do have an allocated social worker. Those who do not are covered by a "duty social work system", which can involve keeping in contact with families via phone calls or home visits.
A national review of the HSE's child and family services for 2006 - which has just been completed - shows that just over 2,000 foster carers had an approved social worker. However, a total of just over 3,200 foster families provided care for children in care that year.
While the numbers are almost two years old, social workers say the same pattern of gaps in child protection persist across the State.
The gaps in social work reflect the findings of a Social Services Inspectorate study of HSE fostering services in the northeast which found that one-third of children did not have a dedicated social worker.
Inspectors said they were "extremely concerned" because this meant standards for the assessment of children's needs and care planning for young people in foster care could not be met. They raised concerns about the child protection system, pertaining to the way disclosures made by children were assessed and the frequency of social work visits.
Despite these shortcomings, inspectors said they found evidence of good practice in many areas and were impressed by the care the children were receiving. Many of the children felt well cared for and were happy in their placements.
The Irish Association of Social Workers said the failure of health authorities to fill all vacant social work posts and to recruit sufficient numbers of new social workers was putting vulnerable children at risk.
A spokesman said the protection of children was at the bottom of the list of priorities of those who make decisions about funding.
Many social workers in child protection services said they experience stress, burn-out and exhaustion as they struggle with an increasing workload and insufficient resources.
The HSE, however, said an additional 335 social work posts had been introduced since 2005, representing a 17 per cent increase in the number of social workers employed in the health service. It also said spending on child protection and social work services had increased from €45 million to €81 million, reflecting its emphasis on preventive services.
