Child Care Services Data

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Questions (107)

Róisín Shortall

Question:

107. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children waiting to be allocated a social worker by length of time waiting, geographical area, and whether the children are deemed to be high priority. [44416/15]

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Written answers

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

In September 2015 Tusla reported there were 19,466 children (open cases) who had an allocated social worker dealing with issues of assessment, child protection, and children in care. There were a further 7,013 children (open cases) who had been assessed as needing a dedicated social worker, and were waiting for one to be allocated. Some of these cases may have had an allocated social worker, but due to a social worker leaving, they are reclassified as awaiting a social worker. I wish to assure the Deputy that all urgent and emergency cases are dealt with immediately. This could involve cases of abandonment, allegations of physical and sexual abuse, parental ill health and the need to find an immediate placement, or threat to the safety or life of a child by a third party.

The priority (or category) of high, medium or low given to the case after a preliminary enquiry, is based on the information known at that time. It is important to note that "high priority" should not simply be equated with risk. Social work duty teams keep high priority cases under review with regular checks to ascertain risk to the child, and where necessary, will reprioritise the case. Duty teams manage the cases awaiting allocation on a risk management basis by checking on the circumstances, and observing any changes that would increase or decrease risk. An example could be the presence or absence of a stable grandparent where a parent has a mental health problem which could impact on the priority associated with the case.

This Department continues to monitor the number of cases that are reported as awaiting the allocation of a social worker. The additional funding of €38 million which has been secured for Tusla in 2016 will provide increased resources to meet identified risks and service demands. The additional resources are intended to alleviate service pressures in child welfare and protection services, in particular pressures being faced in the areas of unallocated cases, private residential and foster care and domestic, sexual and gender based violence services. The information requested by the Deputy relating to geographical area and priority level is detailed in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of Cases Awaiting Allocation by Priority Level and Area

Area	Low	Medium	High	Total
Dublin North	709	494	10	1,213
Cork	429	324	160	913
Dublin South Central	143	365	266	774
Dublin South West/ Kildare/ West Wicklow	260	236	136	632
Midlands	171	305	36	512
Dublin North Central	277	184	2	463
Waterford/Wexford	70	282	56	408
Louth/Meath	40	108	176	324
Carlow/ Kilkenny/ South Tipperary	20	99	191	310
Galway/Roscommon	40	188	61	289
Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon	11	194	68	273
Donegal	58	144	55	257
Midwest	138	40	66	244
Cavan/Monaghan	10	183	7	200
Dublin South East/Wicklow	89	81	15	185
Kerry	6	3	-	9
Mayo	6	1	-	7
Cases awaiting allocation by priority level, Q3 2015	2,477	3,231	1,305	7,013

The information requested by the Deputy relating to waiting time and priority level is outlined in Table 2.

Table 2: Length of Waiting Times for Cases Awaiting Allocation by Priority Level

High Priority/Time Waiting	Q2 2015	Q3 2015
1 week	131	94
1 -2 weeks	119	145
2 - 3 weeks	65	144
3 - 4 weeks	103	82
1 - 2 months	241	148
2 - 3 months	240	165
>3 months	606	527
Total	1,505	1,305
Medium Priority/Time Waiting	Q2 2015	Q3 2015
1 week	170	94
1 -2 weeks	193	165
2 - 3 weeks	193	152
3 - 4 weeks	195	185
1 - 2 months	505	378
2 - 3 months	528	451
>3 months	1,591	1,806
Total	3,375	3,231
Low Priority/Time Waiting	Q2 2015	Q3 2015
1 week	32	51
1 -2 weeks	98	74
2 - 3 weeks	108	86
3 - 4 weeks	139	87
1 - 2 months	238	290
2 - 3 months	329	320
>3 months	1,307	1,569
Total	2,251	2,477