Tusla delays highlighted in HIQA inspection

HIQA, the health watchdog, has found major issues in an inspection of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, in Donegal.

The inspection, carried out last August, centred on the implementation of a Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure which came into operation in June, 2022. The inspection focussed on Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and west Cavan and found that the majority of standards assessed were not compliant.

It said that assessments were not completed in line with time frames set out in Túsla’s own procedures. No Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure was concluded within the 14 months since its commencement.

Five standards were inspected against, and the services were found to be substantially compliant with two standards and not compliant with three standards.

“There were substantial delays at all stages of the process,” the report said. “While there were reasons for some delays, such as challenges in engaging with alleged victims and alleged abusers, the procedure overall was not efficient, and therefore not person centred.”

While children and families were communicated with in a sensitive manner, there were often delays in this communication. In addition, publicly available information leaflets were complex and only available in English.

There was inconsistent documentation on CASP files related to children.

HIQA said in a statement: “Due to cases waiting for preliminary enquiry, there were delays in identifying children who had contact with alleged abusers.

“The purpose of preliminary enquiries is to gain further information in order to determine what action is required to address the needs of and risks to a child. The procedure did not provide guidance on how to identify or respond to cases of possible or confirmed organisational or institutional abuse, and the absence of such guidance gave rise to the risk of such cases not being identified.”

The report highlight failing with the policy on the completion of forms used to notify the Garda Síochána National Vetting Bureau of concerns about adults and the CASP.

A statement said: “This meant that Tusla did not operate in line with its requirements as a scheduled organisation under the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. The CASP team had escalated this risk to Tusla’s national forum, but it was slow to be addressed.

“There were delays in the implementation of other governance mechanisms, which, at the time of inspection, management was in the process of addressing.”

The inspection indicated that children were not always at the centre of the implementation of CASP in this area. The reasons for this were put down to several reasons, including: the delays in Garda vetting notifications potentially placed children at risk; the delays in communication with children and their families; the delays in identifying children who possibly had contact with alleged abusers due to cases awaiting allocation at preliminary enquiry stage; it was not consistently evident on files if a child was safe and protected; identified children were referred to child protection and welfare services, and managers of the service advised inspectors that such safeguarding information was on the child’s child protection and welfare (CPW) file; however, best practice would be to have this clearly stated on the CASP file.

In a statement, Tusla said it has put in place ‘a number of improvements’.

The agency says that it has agreed a compliance plan with HIQA ‘to ensure that deficiencies noted in the report are rectified as soon as possible’. A change in the Tusla’s Policy and Procedures now allows submission of notifications to the National Vetting Bureau (NVB) at any stage in the CASP process, once the bone fide threshold is reached.

“Tusla has a very specific responsibility to promote the welfare of children and to safeguard them from potential risk of harm,” said Gerry Hone, Tusla Regional Chief Officer, West North West.

“We work with all persons affected by an allegation of abuse with fairness, compassion, dignity, and respect while ensuring decisions made are made in line with legislation, policy, and best practice.

“It is important that a year on from the introduction of CASP the process is open to review and improvement. We have taken a number of steps to address the issues highlighted in the report. We are working to implement practical solutions and improvements to demonstrate our commitment to improving the quality of the service, and we acknowledge that we have further work to do.”