Judge slams failure by Tusla to notify courts of children in care with no social worker

The failure by Tusla, the child and family agency, to notify the courts it had not allocated designated social workers to 235 children in care was a “shocking, appalling and damning” indictment of the agency, a judge has said.

The 235 children, under the care of two social work departments – Dublin southwest/Kildare west/Wicklow and Dublin south central – still have no allocated social workers and some have had no allocated worker for years, according to Judge Conor Fottrell.

The failure to inform the courts of this, as the agency was obliged to do, was “a failure of management at local, regional and national level” and raised “serious concerns” about issues of governance and communication within the agency at all levels, he said.

One child, who was taken into care in 2016, has had no allocated social worker since 2019, he said.

When children were put into the care of Tusla, there were national standards dating back 15 years to ensure they were kept safe, including that they must have their own social worker, he said.

If they do not, the agency must notify the court, but although senior Tusla management was aware of the non-allocation issue in late 2022, the court did not become aware of it until last April, he said.

Had the court been made aware of that earlier, it could have reappointed guardians (whose appointment ceases once care orders are made) to the children and kept their cases under review.

The judge said he had asked Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan to address the matter in written correspondence and to attend court to address his concerns but she had not yet taken up that invitation.

The court had received correspondence from Ms Duggan, including an apology over the agency’s failures.

Ms Duggan had acknowledged she was made aware of the non-allocation issue in late 2022, when she was a line manager, and accepted she should have escalated the matter to her superiors, including HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster, but had not done so. The matter had since been escalated to senior management level, the court was told.

The agency’s evidence was to the effect the non-allocation arose due to a shortage of social workers who met agency standards.

The judge made the comments at Dublin Metropolitan District childcare court on Wednesday at the outset of a list where he dealt with several of the 235 cases the court had re-entered due to the non-allocation issue.