Report on the investigation of HSE Social Work Service Provision in North Lee

A complaint was submitted to this Office by a Social Work staff member from the North Lee social work team which included a complaint form and a copy of a memo she issued to line management. The complaint relates to the level of referrals received by the duty team and the difficulties in responding to this, specifically referrals regarding child welfare and protection. In the information submitted the following serious concerns were raised:

• there are over 200 children and young people in the North Lee Social Work area who, despite being identified by the Health Service Executive (HSE) as having been abused or at risk of being abused, are awaiting a social work service from the HSE;
• while North Lee Social Work area responds to children who are at severe risk, there are high numbers of “at risk”children who they are unable to respond to because there is no available social worker to follow up on concerns and;
• there are currently 147 cases in the North Lee area referred for child protection or welfare concerns that have no allocated Social Worker, which included Priority 1 cases of neglect and sexual abuse. The result of this is that these children remain unscreened and unassessed by the HSE and may be in seriously at risk situations.
  The July memo listed by initials, a number of priority 1 and 2 cases (considered to be high risk), as well as priority 3 and 4 cases (medium/low risk) and states that these cases have had NO follow up as there is no one available to follow up on these concerns.

Having sought and received information from the public bodies involved, we decided to proceed to investigation in relation to this case. The investigation of this complaint received in relation to Social Work provision in the North Lee area was initiated prior to statutory inspection of child protection services being commenced by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

• April 2013
• Type: Investigation
• Topic: Child protection, Health