A member of staff at Oberstown Children Detention Campus was hospitalised at the weekend following an assault by a young person, according to the Forsa trade union.
The alleged incident on Sunday afternoon occurred in the exercise yard of one of the campus’s units.
The staff member was “punched in the face several times in an unprovoked attack” and “had to be taken to hospital where he was X-rayed for a suspected facial fracture”, said a union source.
The staff source said there were insufficient staffing levels in the yard at the time of Sunday’s incident.
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“This young person has been involved in previous violent incidents on the campus ... They come from a very troubled, traumatic background and to be honest should have had far more intensive interventions far earlier in their life.
“They are probably in the wrong placement now.”
The alleged assault comes less than a month after nine staff were injured in an incident involving a young person. That incident, during which improvised weapons were used, resulted in four staff being brought to hospital and a number being signed off work for up to a month, said Forsa.
The union source, who works at Oberstown, queried assertions by Minister for Children Norma Foley, whose department oversees the campus, in a written answer to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon last week, where she said the facility was “not experiencing ‘dangerously low staffing levels’”.
A staff survey conducted by Forsa in the last three months, seen by The Irish Times, found 69 per cent of staff members felt morale was “low” or “very low”, while 54 per cent said morale had worsened in the previous 12 months.
The survey, completed by 120 out of about 175 staff, found 80 per cent felt their workload had increased in the previous 12 months, with 74 per cent saying stress levels had worsened.
A separate workplace culture report, commissioned by the Oberstown board of management and published on Friday, found just half of staff felt “valued as an employee”, while “decision making in the interests of the young people could be improved”.
The report, by accountancy firm Forvis Mazars, said “substantial progress is still required” if the campus is to achieve its “agreed target culture”.
Oberstown’s principal objective is “to provide appropriate care, education, training and other programmes to young people between 12 and 18 years with a view to reintegrating them successfully back into their communities and society”, the report noted.
However, the centre’s “mission statement lacks clarity regarding the organisation’s mandate in returning young people successfully to society” it said.
“While 76 per cent of survey respondents agreed Oberstown is a campus they enjoy working in, just half of staff agreed that they felt valued as an employee,” said the report.
“Cross-campus decision making in the interests of the young people could be improved as observed through focus group discussions.
“In the survey, just 47 per cent of respondents agreed that collaboration was actively encouraged.”
On the issue of people development, the report found: “There is no performance management system in Oberstown, as observed through focus group discussion, documentation review, and the survey where 71 per cent of staff agreed they had never been involved in a performance management process.”
Authors found staff felt induction and onboarding systems could be strengthened “to fully prepare them for their roles”.
Just half of respondents agreed they were provided with the necessary information when they joined Oberstown.
“Only 25 per cent of survey respondents believed good performance is recognised at Oberstown and focus group discussions indicated there would be appreciation among staff for more acknowledgment of a ‘job well done’.”
A Department of Children spokesman said: “The Department offers its full support to any member of staff who has been injured during the course of their work. As with all circumstances of this nature, these matters will be the subject of internal review. The Department does not comment on operational matters relating to Oberstown Children Detention Campus.”
A spokesman for Oberstown said he could not comment on an individual incident, but that the campus “offers its full support to any member of staff who has been injured during the course of their work”.
He said management acknowledged the findings of the culture review, took the findings “seriously” and were “committed to acting on them”.
