Children have to spend longer in an abusive or neglectful environment because there are not enough places where they can be taken once a care order is issued, an audit has found
In a report on the Child Protection Services (CPS), which investigates cases of child abuse and severe neglect, the National Audit Office expressed concern that there were insufficient placements for children on care orders.
Children in these circumstances are housed in third party accommodation ranging from fostering, which is the preferred option, to agreements with NGOs or Church-owned homes.
"This placement supply is however consistently lower than the generated demand, which results in some children, who would require out of home accommodation, having to reside in an abusive or neglectful environment for longer than strictly necessary," the report said.
There are 379 open cases concerning children allegedly being neglected or abused. Of these 100 involve babies and toddlers aged up to three years old, 160 are children between four and 10 years old and 119 are older children and teenagers aged 11 to 18.
Most were referred by the school or the childcare facility but there were cases when investigations began after referrals from health systems, the family, neighbours or law enforcement agencies. There is one open case of a self-referral.
Staff shortages
The NAO found a long-standing understaffing issue with the CPS. The report found that the primary reason for a waiting list for its services was that seven social worker positions remain vacant.
During its audit, the NAO found that the Child Safety Services, which refers most cases to the CPS, was operating around the school schedule, creating a gap during the summer holiday period.
CSS staff are engaged through contracts with conditions similar to those offered to teachers ,which means that they are not required to be present at school during the summer period and only do so voluntarily.
The audit found a satisfactory level of documentation at the CPS but found shortcomings in the data-keeping at the CSS, with officials keeping individual and uncentralised data on their assigned cases in formats which differ from one another.
On the other hand, cases that are referred to CPS are listed in a central CSS database which has been active since the service’s inception in 1999 but which became cumbersome to manage.
Adoption hope with new law
The NAO noted upcoming challenges once a new law is introduced which would transfer the onus of issuing care orders from the education and employment minister to the judicial system.
The new law will also allow for the possibility for children involved in certain cases of child abuse to be freed up for adoption.
It said it had visited ongoing works on the Children’s House which provides a more child-friendly environment and is intended to bring all stakeholders together to perform a single intervention on a child abuse victim, thereby avoiding unnecessary re-traumatisation through multiple sessions.
The house will offer more adequate premises in which cases of child abuse may be heard by the judiciary, rather than victims being required to give testimony in court which could be a negatively overwhelming experience to minors.
It said various equipment such as medical and video conferencing are already in place and can be used as soon as the new law is in place.