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High Court secure care child cases go unreported

The Child Care Law Reporting Project has applied to be re-admitted to the High Court to hear youth detention cases.

The High Court has heard cases relating to two vulnerable children with complex needs, while the District Court has heard a further three, according to the latest report of the Child Care Law Reporting Project.

The courts continue to remain preoccupied with finding suitable placements for such children who often present with both mental and physical ailments, the report says.

However, the CCLRP is prevented from attending secure care cases of children requiring detention in the High Court. The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011 earlier this year put on a statutory basis the regime for dealing with children requiring secure care, which previously had been dealt with by the High Court under its own inherent jurisdiction.

The CCLRP has made an application to the court to be permitted to attend under the High Court’s own jurisdiction, and is awaiting a judgment on this application.

No suitable placement

The CCLRP’s latest report details 30 individual files where drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness and learning disabilities continue to feature in the lives of children.

In the two High Court cases, the youngsters concerned had been in specialist centres in Britain, but were due to return to Ireland as they turned 18 and no suitable placement could be found for them here.

In one case of a mother with a learning disability, the High Court was asked to answer questions from the District Court judge as to the extent of his jurisdiction to direct the Child and Family Agency to carry out an assessment of what supports the mother would require to allow her care for her child.

The High Court declined to answer the questions posed because there was no finding of fact on which to base the legal guidance being sought.

Concerning

CCLRP director Dr Carol Coulter (pictured above) said that it was very concerning that there was no solution in sight for the placement of very disturbed young people.

“The ad hoc way in which this is currently dealt with is both wasteful and highly stressful for these vulnerable young people and those who care for them,” she said.

Good outcomes

She acknowledged good outcomes for many youngsters who had less complex problems and who had come into the care of the State.

One such boy is preparing to enter third level education after three years in foster care with a relative, the report said.

Child sexual abuse continues to feature in a minority of cases, which are usually very prolonged in duration. One such case began in January 2016 and has further hearings scheduled for November 2018.

Another also began in 2016 and concluded three months ago, but no judgment has been delivered as yet. A report on these lengthy and complex cases was published by the CCLRP in June and is available on its website, www.childlawproject.ie.

Two of the cases concerned families from other EU countries, where they had faced child protection proceedings, including one where the parents fled to Ireland with a young baby when care proceedings were mooted in Britain.

In both cases, the issue of which country had jurisdiction to consider the matter was being considered by both the District and the High Court simultaneously