CHILDREN'S CHARITY:HEALTH SERVICE Executive reports into the deaths of children who have died in State care will point to the same gross systems failure that was evident in the Tracey Fay case, Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said yesterday.
Mr Finlay confirmed that he is familiar with the circumstances of a number of the cases involved.
Speaking in Ennis at the launch of social service group Clarecare’s new four-year strategy, Mr Finlay said: “We know that 20 children died in care over the last decade. About half of them died of what you might call medical causes or natural causes. The other half of them have not been satisfactorily explained. I am familiar in the circumstances of three cases and they will all point up to the same kind of gross systems failure that was evident in the Tracey Fay case.
He added: “While there have been some reforms and there have been some new resources, there is almost, in my view, a need to start from scratch.”
He said other reports he was familiar with would “say the same things about chaotic communication; bad planning; bad management; poor systems; lack of follow through, overburdening of staff and inadequate qualifications.
“It will say all of those kind of things and it will be no surprise to anybody in any of them who is involved in the system, but if everyone of them keeps the fire lit, then we will begin to get action.”
Mr Finlay told an audience that included Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh that “Tracey Fay was terribly badly let down by the State who died alone and lonely in the gutter as a result of the failure of an awful lot of people”.
He added: “She wasn’t born to die in the gutter, but that is where she died,” adding that “we are miles away from an effective children’s strategy”.
He said: “Virtually every social worker I know in child protection is hugely overburdened, hugely overstretched. Huge case loads that they can’t get near. That is why there are thousands of children who are known to be at risk who haven’t been assessed. About one-third of children who are in care have no continuing care plan.
“It is a deeply unsatisfactory and worrying situation to think that risk continues and sometimes can get worse when the children go into the care of the State.
Commenting on the HSE figures which said 20 children died while in State care, he said: “One fundamental problem is that these reports are being done by HSE managers, who are coping with crises day after day, who have a particular view of crisis because that is what they live with. There has to be a much more independent approach taken.”
