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A FALL-OFF IN the number of child protection referrals to the Child and Family Agency Tusla has raised fears that a significant number of children are vulnerable to abuse and neglect during the current public health crisis.
With schools closed until September, creches closed until late July at the earliest, and activities suspended at sports and youth organisations, the interaction between children and adults outside of their immediate families has been stopped.
Teachers, coaches, and youth leaders play a vital role in identifying signs of child abuse and neglect at home, often recognisable through a change in a child’s behaviour, and which can then be referred to Tusla.
But Tusla has confirmed to TheJournal.ie that referrals have been “notably down” over the past two months due to the limited interaction of children with other adults in the community.
It has lead to fears that some children may be caught in vulnerable or harmful situations.
“We are seeing indications that the number of referrals to child protection and welfare services are lower than usual at this time,” a spokesperson said.
“As many services and industries are not operating normally, for example the closure of schools, it is expected that referral numbers will be lower. However, Tusla’s child protection and welfare teams are here, and are working to keep children as safe as possible in every community around the country.”
When a child is referred to Tusla, the agency carries out an investigation into any suspected cases of abuse or neglect, and it works with families to support them where possible. As a last resort, it will remove a child from a family home and place them in the care of the State.
The agency relies on referrals to spark an investigation and subsequently introduce child protection measures.
General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, John Boyle said that the ability of teachers and principals, who ordinarily have a responsibility to report any concerns to Tusla, has been hindered due to “the limited direct contact with pupils” at present.
Tanya Ward, CEO of the Children’s Rights Alliance, said alcohol abuse in the home, as well as hunger, are some of the issues facing children during the current health crisis, and which require the intervention of social workers.
“If you look at the way the child protection system operates, it’s based on referrals, and the best people to assess what’s happening to a child is often the teacher because they see the child everyday and they can see the changes in a child’s behaviour,” she explained.
“It can also be a health worker, a youth worker, and it can also be family members, say grandparents or uncles, who make referrals because they notice a change in a child’s behaviour, but with Covid-19… it means those professionals don’t have the same contact they had before.
“I think we need to look at activities over the summer months for vulnerable children while respecting as much as we can the social distancing rules.
But we need to get the balance right because there are issues around alcohol abuse during this period and the impact of that is enormous on children.
“There’s a situation where there’s a big increase in hunger because families can’t survive on welfare payments but also they’re at home longer and they would often have been getting a meal in their local DEIS school, so you have a conflation of different issues coming together to create a potentially very serious situation.”
Ward suggested that as children return to school in September and begin attending sports clubs later in the year, there will be a surge of child protection referrals made by teachers and other professionals.
According to figures for 2019, Tusla received some 59,683 referrals for child protection and welfare services.
Some 5,877 cases referred to child protection and welfare services in January of this year – the only figures available for 2020 so far.
“Tusla is definitely focusing on the children where we know there are serious child protection issues and they prioritise them,” Ward said.
“But the bigger issue is that neglect piece, that you’ve now got a long period of time where children could be subjected to an awful lot of neglect. By the time September or October comes, there’s a real risk of a huge upsurge of child and welfare protection cases… and six months is a long time in the life of a child.”
Ward suggested that family members and adults familiar with a child, such as teachers and youth leaders, can play a role over the coming months by maintaining contact with children over Skype and Zoom calls “because then they can see if there is a change in the child’s behaviour” and contact Tusla, if necessary.
The Child and Family Agency is continuing to operate as normal during the Covid-19 emergency and is processing referrals as they are received.
“All referrals or concerns about children are being screened and assessed in line with normal practice and where a child is at immediate risk, they receive an immediate protective response,” the Tusla spokesperson said.
“Anyone with a concern about the wellbeing or safety of a child during this time to contact the local duty social work office where the child lives. Details are available on the Tusla website at www.tusla.ie or contact us via the Tusla online portal at portal.tusla.ie.”
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My heart goes out to these innocent little kids in a time when they need the most protection.
This will be one of the saddest outcomes of COVID. Children suffering at the hands of abusers and no-one able to identify it, protect them or support them.
Very sad, poor little things. There is so much of this going on in homes even before this virus. It makes my blood boil
Is this a press release or is it the journal’s subterfuge when they write ‘a significant number of children are vulnerable to abuse and neglect during the current public health crisis.’?
There are and were many ongoing public health *crises* before Covid-19 which affected every aspect of society, including children; Covid-19 has just exacerbated an over resourced failing system which is under the auspices of successive FFG governments, civil servants and private healthcare lobbyists – to name a few.
Such biased journalism, so much for objectivity.
Using something as horrible as child abuse to force your own political narrative is low and then to accuse the journal of it ,is just obvious. Ireland does well with regard to child protection and the HSE have been crying out for more social workers to fill positions, so funding has nothing to do with it. Ffg have not performed well in certain areas but has never let this part of the HSE slip, as they both know it would be political suicide.
@Lao Tzu: valid point, not popular but still valid. Hard to know. Where HSE money goes as the Irish civil service us one of the most secret.
@Pol Mac An Sionnaigh: Sorry I don’t know which tree you have been living up… But to actually get the very broken Tusla to come out to a referal the case would have to be at the very top of the scale.and I mean the very worst. Any other type of abuse does not count. 3 referrals to a case I know excluding the Garda and they were to busy. it is too late now. Wake up system is way to broken. Social workers leaving in there drives because you can’t make a difference in a very broken system.
@ Lao Tzu I think the point of this article was to look at the impact this current health crisis is having on children. The nature of the crisis and the measures that have had to be put in place to address the spread of disease have isolated children in a way not seen before. The same is the case for women and domestic violence. Simply having a less open society to address one problem has created its own risks. This is worth discussing. It is also good for us to know Tusla is still open to taking referrals if people are worried about a child.
Great they might actually do something about the few cases they have
@Spailpeen Farrell: now you’ve said it
@Pol – what did you just write? ‘my political narrative’; ‘Ireland does well with regard to child protection and the HSE have been crying out for more social workers to fill positions, so funding has nothing to do with it. Ffg have not performed well in certain areas but has never let this part of the HSE slip, as they both know it would be political suicide.’
Re-read your comment and then get back to me.
Actually don’t, you absolute fool – you’ve just clarified my point.
@Lao Tzu: Don’t worry when SF get in in 5 years time everything will be perfect…Jesus wept!!!
@Ronan Mc Namara: Wtf has SF got to do with anything?!
@Lao Tzu: so your response is to repeat what I said then call me a name….great retort! I expected nothing less from someone who clearly has zero understanding of how the child protection system works. Keep pushing your politics upon sensitive areas of our social system, I’m sure you are very bright.
Over resourced and underperforming. Accounting for every penny of public funds usage in every state or semi state agency needs to be a priority now. I’d suggest making better use of the nice publicly funded offices and facilities, while cutting back on “working lunches” in the local hostelries. Use the peoples money wisely instead of eating and drinking it. Bring your lunch in a bag, use our money to help vulnerable children. Jobs for life, no reason to even try to perform. Civil servants have become the civil masters.
The biggest threat to the safety and welfare is that misandrist organisation Tusla. They do not care for the welfare of children, only mothers. In my case they made excuses and blamed me for my ex neglecting my children when I was not at home. They supported and endorsed her abuse and made it worse for me and my children. I had to wait until my kids were 12 so I could make sure that they would have a choice where they would live as Tusla had openly admitted to me that they would leave the kids with my ex, as she hadn’t got a job and would need an income. They only advise they give me was to get a divorce or “Suck it up and deal with it”, and this was after i told them i was a victim of domestic abuse and my kids were being neglected. Any man who is dealing with Tusla should treat them with suspicion, they will tell you one thing but they will be working behind your back with the mother to get you out. I have had them even put lies in my kids mouths in reports and now lie in sworn statements to the courts to discredit me as a father. They will do what ever it takes to score another point for Feminism and screw over a father. @Connor McCrave, give me a shout and I will give you a story so messed up you would sooner leave your child in the care of the catholic church before you would leave them with Tusla.
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