€60m in State funding handed back as 6,000 children left without social workers
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone and her department are to be severely criticised for handing back almost €60m in State funding last year when 6,000 children were not allocated a social worker.
The findings are contained in the latest progress report from the Dáil’s spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), due for publication tomorrow.
The committee is to conclude as “unacceptable” that such a large amount of money went unspent when such gaping holes in social services to the most vulnerable children in the State exist.
“It is unacceptable that 6,000 children had not been allocated a social worker by Tusla while at the same time the Department surrendered €58.7m to the exchequer at the end of the year,” the PAC report will say.
Parts of the final report have been seen by the Irish Examiner.
“The Committee recommends that a proper management system be established by the Department ensure when funding is provided by the Oireachtas that it is utilised in the appropriate manner, in this case to provide social workers to children, and not returned unspent to the exchequer,” the report will say.
The figure of 6,000 unallocated cases is a reduction from 10,000 unallocated cases that existed when Tusla was established in 2014.
Tusla said in 2018 there was a 40% increase in the number of cases assigned to it compared to 2014 and that this affected the number of unallocated cases, the report will say.
Serious shortcomings in foster care services were outlined in a report from the Health Information and Quality Authority last month. Inspectors found that the allocation of social workers to children in care by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, was “chaotic and not child-centred”.
Fianna Fáil’s spokeswoman on youth affairs Anne Rabbitte claimed the “revolving door” of temporary staff at the child protection agency is failing vulnerable children.
The number of agency employees increased by 125% from 2016 to 2019. At the same time, the number of directly employed social workers has grown by just 3.8%.
Ms Zappone recently told the Dáil that there are currently 321 vacant posts for social workers in Tusla. The agency is actively trying to fill these funded posts.
“It is acknowledged that there is a shortage of social workers in Ireland and internationally which makes recruitment of the required staff very challenging. The scale of the challenge is significant. For example, in 2018, the Tusla recruitment section appointed 142 new social workers but 158 social workers left or retired from the agency during the same period. The turnover rate for social workers has fallen from 9.5% in 2017 to 7.8% in 2018,” she said.
The PAC is also to conclude that it is not clear that the use of private agencies to provide residential and foster care services for 260 children at an annual cost of €100m in 2017 represents value for money for the Exchequer.
“While there may be some differences in the services provided, Tusla provides similar services for 5000 children at a cost of €105m. The Committee recommends that Tusla reviews the use of private agencies to provide residential and foster care services and considers providing these services directly,” the report will say.
The report will also be highly critical of An Garda Síochána’s continued need for a financial bailout since 2013.
The PAC will conclude that the force’s requirement for a supplementary estimate every year between 2013 and 2017 “highlights ineffective management and control of the annual budget”.
The PAC report will also conclude that insufficient progress is being made regarding the production of accurate crime statistics.
