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‘Serious cracks’ in State’s response to children

The latest report from the Child Law Project (CLP) has found an increased focus from the courts on a lack of appropriate care placements for children.

The report, authored by Dr Maria Corbett and Dr Carol Coulter, is based on the CLP’s attendance at child-protection court hearings over a three-year period from mid-2021 until June 2024.

Falling Through the Cracks: An Analysis of Child Care Proceedings from 2021 to 2024 provides in-depth commentary on trends emerging from 343 individual court reports.

Dr Corbett (chief executive of the CLP) said that “serious cracks” in the State’s response to children were having a detrimental impact on some of Ireland’s most vulnerable children.

She cited:

• An acute shortage of foster and residential care placements,
• A “dismal” response by the HSE to meeting the disability, mental health, and addiction needs of children in care, and
• Weak inter-agency cooperation.

"These cracks are having a detrimental impact on some of Ireland’s most vulnerable children," Dr Corbett stated.

‘Demoralising effect’

The report lists what it believes are the knock-on effects of a lack of appropriate placements:

• The continued use of unregulated placements and use of emergency placements for protracted periods,
• The detention of children in special care for longer than necessary, while other children cannot gain the access they need to special care, and
• Children experiencing multiple placement moves, often over a short period of time.

“This cycle of poor practice also has a knock-on effect of demoralising those working in child-care and foster carers,” the report adds.

While the CLP welcomed the recent establishment by the Department of Children of an inter-agency committee on vulnerable children, Dr Corbett said that there was still “no whole-of-government strategy” on child protection. 

“There is also no roadmap to deliver the legal and policy changes necessary to create a new placement model of high-support care for children with complex needs, and those at risk of exploitation or trafficking,” she added.

Dr Corbett continued: "While there has been welcome progress made over the past three years to reform the family-justice system and amend child-care law, the findings of this report underscore the need for urgent cross-government action on the provision of care placements and therapeutic services to ensure the State can vindicate the rights of children and build trust in the care system.”

Crowded lists

The report also features the findings of a survey examining a typical day in court, based on attendance at 38 court venues across the 24 districts that make up the District Court. 

The survey found that, in more than 70% of those courts, child-care cases were still heard alongside other cases in often-crowded lists, despite a legal requirement that they be held separately.

“One judge had to hear 160 matters in one day; several judges were so busy they didn’t break for lunch,” CLP executive director Dr Carol Coulter said.

“For parents attending court, many had to wait around the courthouse all day for their case to be called, with nowhere to sit or talk in private to their lawyer,” she added. 

Dr Coulter welcomed the plan to establish Family Courts, saying that they had the potential to standardise practice across the country, and to enable child care to be given the time and specialist focus it deserved.

Vulnerable parents

The report describes the profile of children and parents who come before the courts in child-care cases.

Almost a third of parents (29 per cent) in child-care cases suffered from a disability, of whom two-thirds had mental-health problems, while most of the remainder had a cognitive disability.

“The provision of appropriate supports to vulnerable parents, especially those with disabilities, could help keep children in their families and meet Ireland’s obligations under international human-rights law,” Dr Coulter stated.

“Like the supports needed by children with complex needs, this requires co-operation across a number of Government departments,” she added.

The report published today (4 November) marks the conclusion of the project’s three-year contract with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).