Judge slams ‘shameful’ care-crisis 'profiteering'
A District Court judge has said that the Child and Family Agency’s use of so-called ‘special emergency arrangements’ (SEAs) as a placement option for children in care must come to an end.
Judge Conor Fottrell also described as “wrong and shameful” the fact that SEAs owned by private businesses and individuals were “profiteering out of a placement crisis for the most vulnerable children in care”.
The judge’s comments came as he granted an interim care order for one week in what he described as the “deeply troubling and worrying” case of a 13-year-old boy who had gone missing from an SEA.
The case had come before the court three times in a week.
Boy ‘very vulnerable’
He said the report of the decision had been anonymised to satisfy “the public interest in favour of publication” without any identification of any of the parties.
Noting that the child has been described by professionals involved in the case as “a very vulnerable young boy”, the judge said that the child was believed to be involved with older adults and, potentially, being criminally exploited.
Judge Fottrell said that, in the absence of a suitable appropriate placement option, the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, had placed him in an SEA for nearly three months, with no other placement option yet identified.
Unregulated
“There is nothing special about these arrangements. They usually consist of a rented apartment, hotel room or B&B.
"They are unregulated and unregistered and cannot be routinely inspected by the regulatory body, meaning a lack of checks to ensure that children in care receive a high quality of care and are safe,” the judge stated.
“This case highlights again the placement crisis that exists for children in the care of the State and how that crisis is impacting on the safety and welfare of children in care and placing them at an increased risk of harm,” Jude Fottrell said.
The court granted the child’s guardian ad litem (GAL) an application under section 47 of the Childcare Act 1991, making a direction that Tusla provide a “suitable and appropriate” registered placement to meet the needs of the child.