ANALYSIS:Investigators have found senior HSE management, rather than social workers, are to blame for a shocking catalogue of failure in foster care services
SOCIAL WORK can be a lonely and thankless profession. For those on the front line, it means making life-changing decisions about the welfare of vulnerable children. Often, these decisions are taken against the backdrop of a chaotic and under-resourced child protection system.
“You try against all odds to help parents or children by providing support,” says one member of the profession.
“You never hear about the success stories, but when things go wrong, you get the blame. ‘Why did social workers fail this child’. It’s always our fault. It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Again, many social workers will feel the finger of blame is pointing at them following the publication of yesterday’s Hiqa reports into foster care services in parts of Dublin.
But they shouldn’t. A closer reading of the findings shows this is damning catalogue of failure not by individual social workers, but by senior management within the Health Service Executive.
The report chronicles the shocking inaction of management in the face of vulnerable children being placed in unsafe and unvetted placements, sometimes for years on end.
In the case of Dublin northwest, Hiqa’s report highlighted “a lack of recognition at senior management level that the childcare regulations exist to safeguard and protect vulnerable children”.
It added: “The findings in these areas showed an unsafe approach to protecting and safeguarding children.”
Some might defend management on the basis that a light was first shone on these concerns last year, after Hiqa inspectors looked through foster care files in the area.
But this defence doesn’t work. Evidence of these massive failings had been known at least as far back as 2004, according to the Hiqa report.
It states: “The fact that these shortcomings have been known for a number of years, and were still present in 2009 and 2010, outline serious deficiencies in the effectiveness of the accountability, governance and management of these services, and the lack of emphasis on a child-centred culture at all levels of the HSE, but more significantly at management level.”
So what of the efforts made by individual social workers in these areas which were failing so badly? Amid the chaos of Dublin northwest, inspectors found evidence of good practice where children had been assigned a social worker.
In addition, children interviewed by inspectors presented as being well cared for, while carers spoke highly of the social workers they were in contact with. It was a similar story in Dublin north central.
It speaks volumes of Hiqa’s level of confidence in HSE senior management that it has pointedly reminded the board of the executive it should satisfy itself that managers are doing their job.
If anyone is looking for what good, accountable management can achieve, they needn’t look too far. Inspectors found that the neighbouring local health office area of Dublin north was, for the most part, excellently run.
Here, inspectors found a markedly different outlook and provision. They found that social workers and foster carers were creating an inclusive culture of participation and partnership with parents, which was having a very positive effect on the children. Children were being visited by their social workers frequently, and care planning and reviews were occurring in line with requirements.
Unless there are sanctions against senior management who have failed children, it is hard to see how this culture of inaction in other local health offices will change. Due to secrecy of the way the HSE operates, we don’t know what, if any, measures have been taken to remove or discipline those responsible.
The HSE insists it is responding and ensuring any child protection concerns that emerge are dealt with as a priority. But it will be judged by its actions, rather than its words, over coming months.
