A report published by the HSE this week reveals that apparent discrimination by the Child and Family Agency Tusla has excluded disabled children from child protection services.
The document was made public upon request under the Freedom of Information act.
It is claimed that the child protection agency has undergone “major failings” in their implementation of services for the most vulnerable children.
Extreme frustration has been directed at Tusla, by the social care section of the HSE, due to its lack of progress in assessing the needs of children with disabilities.
The framework appears to discriminate disabled children, rendering them unable to be fully apart of our child protection services.
“Feedback from operational areas has identified that service providers, whilst following the Children First Guidelines, are then unable to access child protection services due to an increase in the threshold level and criteria of the CFA framework as set by the CFA.
“This raises concerns for the service provider where safety and welfare concerns are identified and ‘proactive’ input is required”.
Ombudsman for children, Niall Muldoon, also described the issues raised in the HSE document as “extremely concerning”.
Tusla have briefly responded to the document stating that all child protection concerns are screened and assessed in line with the CFA guidelines:
“All child protection concerns are treated in the same way, regardless of the challenges that a child may or may not face.
Further, no child is excluded from accessing child protection services, regardless of their situation,” it continued.
However, the HSE document details a large number of cases where Tusla have breached protocols and failed to fulfil statutory obligations.
A local disability service manager remarked “disability agencies have found it very difficult to achieve meaningful engagement with Tusla in ensuring that a child with intellectual disability has the same rights and entitlements as every other child in Ireland requiring services from Tusla.
“Therefore, agency experience thus far has been far from ideal and incredibly frustrating,” he said.
“The issues raised represent a small number of individual instances which occurred in the first nine months of an entirely new working relationship between the HSE and Tusla.
“These issues could be described as the exception rather than the norm.”