Every so often a particularly tragic case involving a child captures national attention, as was the case with the tragic death of Daniel Aruebose. People have been laying flowers in Donabate, where partial skeletal remains believed to be his were discovered. Daniel was last seen when he was 3½ years of age and had not been seen in four years. Tusla was involved with the family from the period just before Daniel’s birth until 2020, but had ceased involvement with the family for about 18 months at the time of his death.
We ask how a child can just slip from sight, yet we are continuing to ignore the many other nameless children who are failed by our creaking, underfunded care system. Children often enter State care after they have been failed already in multiple ways, perhaps through neglect, experiencing violence or sexual abuse. They deserve better than a permacrisis of provision.
While everyone supports children being raised by their families when at all possible, and by foster families when not, a safe residential care system is crucial for young people with highly complex needs.
The challenge is enormous. Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan stated that in 2024 Tusla received 96,666 child-protection and welfare referrals.
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In July there were 5,835 children (0-17 years) in care. Of the 573 children in residential care, 15 were in special care (the highest level of secure care). Tusla cannot staff its other 11 special-care beds despite massive demand. Another 384 of these children (69 per cent) were in residential care with private providers, despite Tusla’s commitment to reduce dependency on for-profit businesses.
The programme for government states that it will develop a national plan on alternative care, including a short-term action plan addressing current issues and a longer-term vision. But this national plan will be meaningless unless we learn from the failings of the present.
There have been harsh criticisms of the staffing crisis from frustrated judges who have no place to send vulnerable children.
Cases highlighted by the Ombudsman for Children include inappropriate placements of children in hospitals, including one child who spent 2½ years beyond medical need in hospital. The Child Law project reported about a young woman with autism kept in a darkened room in a hospital for 60 days.
Private equity can afford capital investment in residential homes, but the voluntary sector has no access to Government capital investment, despite being eager to expand and contribute to solving the current crisis. This is madness
While individual agencies have conducted reviews, such as Tusla’s recent report on special care, we desperately need an independent review of the entire alternative care system. Northern Ireland, England, Wales and the UK have all conducted such reviews.
Independent experts from outside the jurisdiction should be commissioned to examine the piecemeal roles and interaction of State agencies such as Tusla, the Health Service Executive, the Health Information and Quality Authority and the departments of children, health, education and social welfare.
They should also hear the voices of those in or who have left care, their families, social care professionals and voluntary agencies, particularly those directly involved in providing care.
And we must also learn from tragic trends elsewhere. In England and Wales, farming out residential care to private profit-makers led to abuses and obscene profits. The UK Competition and Markets Authority found that private children’s home providers have operating profit margins averaging 22.6 per cent.
The quality of care can be abysmal. A UK for-profit provider, Tristone, trading as Dimensions Care, had five care homes closed because of scandals like untrained staff running chaotic homes, and children being taken for sexual exploitation to hotels.
A UCD study in 2023 found that teenage girls in the care of the State were being targeted and sexually exploited by co-ordinated “gangs” of predatory men.
Wales recently legislated to phase out all commercialised providers by 2030. In Ireland we are heavily dependent on private providers and have spent millions on them. Private providers are inspected by Tusla – so the paymaster is also the regulator. Former chief executives of Tusla, such as Fred McBride in 2018 and Bernard Gloster in 2021 have said we need to end dependency on private care. Their concerns included high staff turnover, lack of experienced staff, over-dependence on agency workers and insufficient staff training. When a child cannot be with her family, stable, professional staff relationships are even more vital.
While many private providers are well run, controversies here have involved one for-profit entity, Good People Homecare, submitting fake Garda vetting certs and accommodating young people in overcrowded, unsuitable conditions. Ideal Care, which provided emergency care, earned €8.5 million from Tusla in 2022-2023. It also submitted fake Garda vetting certs.
We have a non-profit voluntary care system that is highly regarded by both service users and staff. However, Tusla has de-emphasised the voluntary sector: when Tusla set out its vision for residential care from 2022 to 2025, voluntary care providers were not consulted.
In the aftermath of the last financial crash, there was even a two-tier system where voluntary sector staff were paid less and had fewer pension rights than those in the statutory sector. (Most of the discrepancies will be resolved by 2026.) Nonetheless, the voluntary sector has better staff retention rates and therefore more stability for children.
Private equity can afford capital investment in residential homes, but the voluntary sector has no access to Government capital investment, despite being eager to expand and contribute to solving the current crisis. This is madness. Children who are being failed now – or their families – will almost inevitably sue the State. We will have expensive redress schemes, which will be belated and poor compensation for ruined lives. And for some children it is too late even for that.
