Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The recent report on Tusla's children's residential centres throughout the country does not make for good reading. The report highlights wider organisational issues in promoting a culture of quality and safety in children's residential centres. This impacts the ability to build relationships of trust and undertake therapeutic work with the children involved. The deteriorating relationships within the peer group and recent serious incidents involving child protection matters indicate a lack of effective safety planning and monitoring of risks and progress. The effectiveness of behavioural approaches and the use of restrictive procedures requires comprehensive review and assessment for impact with a wider discussion of the balance of safety and children's rights. The reduced staff team and the lack of interim arrangements to mitigate the risks are impacting the effective delivery of safe services for young people. There is a lack of effective monitoring, recording and reviewing of the use of restrictive practices in the service along with a need for improvement in the management oversight of practices and understanding of restrictive practices.

The design of the premises continues to be a matter of concern in that it restricts staff's ability to manage incidents and risks presented by challenging behaviour. Children under the age of 12 should not be put into these centres, and they are. Significant changes to the management structures and the staffing challenges are impacting the oversight capacity and the supervision of the managerial team. There are gaps in staff supervision and in team meetings leading to a lack of familiarity with decisions and discussions of these meetings. Based on this report, there is evidence that there are significant operational and management challenges in promoting a culture of quality and safety in children's residential centres. These issues need to be addressed to ensure the effective delivery of safe services for young people and to enable wraparound services to be undertaken with these children. The use of restrictive practices and behavioural approaches also requires comprehensive review and assessment for impact to ensure the balance of safety and children's rights. Additionally, there is a need for improvement in the oversight capacity of the management team and regular staff supervision to address the gaps in safety and the quality of care for young people.Clearly, a lot of work and reparation needs to take place within the centres. We need the Minister for children to address this House on how he plans to achieve this. I have always said that these centres should not exist. If we had a good, functioning foster care system in this country, these children would have a family and a family home to go to. These centres are not a safe place for children to grow up.