Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published four inspection reports on child protection and welfare services operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla). Four inspections were carried out in the Waterford/Wexford, Mayo, North Dublin and Dublin North City service areas.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Section 8(1)(c) of the Health Act 2007 to monitor the quality of services provided by Tusla to protect children and promote their welfare. HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children and advises the Minister for Children and Tusla.

HIQA conducted four focused inspections over August and September 2021. The inspections aimed to assess compliance with the national standards relating to the management of children who are at ongoing significant risk of harm and who are placed on Tusla’s Child Protection Notification System (CPNS). Of these four inspections, the three Tusla service areas of Waterford/Wexford, Mayo and North Dublin were mostly compliant with the standards.

A consistent finding across all four inspections was that Tusla’s guidelines for child protection conferences and the CPNS had not been subject to review, which increased the risk of inconsistency in practice in the protection of children across Tusla’s operational regions.

In the service areas of Waterford/Wexford, North Dublin and Mayo, local guidelines promoted the protection of children by bridging known gaps in the national policy. Inspectors found that effective leadership, governance and management arrangements ensured timely responses to rising risks. Children on the CPNS received regular visits from a social worker to monitor their safety, with appropriate action taken to protect and safeguard children.

Notwithstanding the good practice found in the Waterford/Wexford service area, the timeliness for the scheduling of initial child protection conferences in a small number of cases required improvement and was found to be non-compliant.

Inspectors found non-compliance with the standards in the Dublin North City service area. Non-compliances impacted the service’s ability to perform its functions in line with relevant legislation, national policies and standards. Inspectors found that admission to care, when all alternative means of protecting children had been exhausted, was delayed for four children listed on the CPNS. The lack of responsive pathways for children who required alternative care posed a major risk to the quality and safety of the service. Ongoing risks such as the lack of placements, high levels of staff vacancies and staff turnover, and high caseloads made it continuously difficult for practitioners to sustain the level and quality of intervention required in cases of children listed on the CPNS. 

Following the inspection, Tusla provided satisfactory assurances that outlined actions to be taken to address the ongoing risks regarding the lack of suitable care placements for children. 

The inspection reports and compliance plans can be found at the link below