Some children are still waiting for assessment despite warning of risks

Sarah Saunderson • Published 25 Feb 2010 10:04 0 Comments

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There are still children in Fermanagh waiting for social workers to assess their cases in spite of risks of unallocated cases outlined in a report by the body monitoring how well services are working to protect children here.

In its recent annual report, the Western Area Child Protection Committee said that "unallocated cases carry unacceptable risks".

However, the Custodian of the Child Protection Register here, Mr. Tom Cassidy, who is the Western Health Trust's Assistant Director for Family Support, says that the numbers of unallocated cases have come down in the last six to eight months and the numbers of family cases waiting for assessment is never static. "If there are any child protection issues, if there is compromised parenting, abuse of drugs or alcohol addiction, we place the child immediately. They do not wait. They are allocated," he said.

Last week there were six families waiting for assessment by the recently established Gateway "first part of call" team and 11 waiting for the next stage of help, the Family Intervention Service. It was expected that the six Gateway cases would be allocated within the week.

"We do not want to have any unallocated cases. If for example, a family does not get support, it may well develop issues that they are at risk. We want to support people as much as possible," said Mr. Cassidy.

The risks of unallocated cases were highlighted at a Health Committee meeting at Stormont with the Western Health Trust in recent months in the aftermath of the McElhill tragedy in Omagh.

13-year-old Caroline McElhill was known to make a call to police in the weeks before the family of five children and two adults died in the house fire set by their father Arthur. The police went to the home and spoke to the Lorraine McGovern, her mother, who told them there were no concerns.

Eleven days later the police referred the issue to social services but case was not marked as urgent and not treated as such. That was just a few weeks before the fire.

"The tragedy was horrendous, and it had a huge impact on staff. I personally have lain awake at night thinking about what the Trust could have done differently. People died, and it was horrendous. The one thing that really stood out with me was the fact that Caroline contacted the police. The police followed that contact up immediately and spoke to Ms McGovern, and although she indicated that things were fine, the Trust should have followed up on Caroline's contact. However, it was a very low-risk referral. If any child makes direct contact with the service about domestic violence or any issue of that nature, the Trust now ensures that that is seen as a priority and dealt with in that manner," Mr. Cassidy told the Stormont Health Committee when interviewed about the issue.

"We have now redesigned our service whereby if a child raises concerns about domestic violence, it is automatically treated as top priority and dealt with immediately. We accept that there are things that could have been done better, but we believe that we have taken all appropriate steps to try to address those concerns," Mr. John Doherty, the Trust's Director of Women and Children's Services told the Stormont committee. Children who call for help should now have their case dealt with within 24 hours.

None of the McElhill children were on the Child Protection Register. Caroline was until 2000 when her name was removed from the Register. Given that Arthur McElhill had been convicted of sexual offences, the Stormont committee asked why the case did not remain "live". "Child protection procedures were followed, and sexual matters were examined in the case of Mr McElhill. It was deemed that he was low risk under the previous multi-agency sex offender risk assessment/management (MASRAM) process, and because of that, it ceased to be a live case for the Trust," said Mr. Cassidy.

Those families on the waiting list for assessment in Fermanagh are in the "family support category". But Mr. Cassidy believes it is important that they are dealt with quickly to prevent issues escalating. "The number of unallocated cases has come down over the last six to eight months. We certainly wanted them down and we did not want to have any unallocated cases. If case is transferred to us we want to provide a service as quickly as we possibly can. If we do not offer support, a family support case could turn in to a child protection case. We deal with cases as quickly as possible. From strategic perspective, unallocated cases are a risk for the Trust because if we do not intervene we do not get involved, children could be hurt or outcomes that could be positive outcomes, could be more difficult," he said.

Fermanagh families are served by a Gateway team and the back-up Family Intervention Service, both based in Enniskillen. There are no temporary staff in the Gateway team of four social workers and one senior social worker. In the Family Intervention Service there are nine permanent staff and one temporary member of staff covering sick leave. Staff work to regional targets in that cases should be allocated within 20 days and further 10 days to complete assessment.

The stress on social workers in this field is well documented.

"Social workers, particularly in the Family Intervention Services and the Gateway teams work with families with identified needs and need to try to address those difficulties off the top of the head. They might be child protection issues. Some of my staff are getting very serious cases of abuse in itself. It can impact on staff working with families in very, very difficult circumstances. Sometimes they are working with families that do not want them involved. All of that can be very, very stressful. For people like myself it is very important to try and support them. We have a super-advisory process where the social worker is managed by a senior social worker," said Mr Cassidy.

Resources in particular have been targeted to the social work service in Fermanagh and Tyrone. "In the Western Trust we got resources allocated to us for family support. We took a view that all resources would be put into the old legacy Sperrin Lakeland trust area both this and last financial year as we felt services were better developed in the northern sector than the southern sector. We would hope to see children's names on the register decreasing as services are better developed," he said. Recent figures showed there are 115 Fermanagh children on the Child Protection Register, the highest rate per 1,000 children in the Trust area.

The recent child protection report by the Western Area Committee suggested the numbers may be down to the economic downturn and recent high-profile cases.

Mr. Cassidy commented: "It is fairly accepted when there is an economic downturn and families are feeling under stress financially, it can have a negative impact. Parents can begin to argue and that can lead to issues.

"When you talk about high profile cases, what you can get is that social workers could, as well as other agencies and professionals, act defensively and put names on the Register to ensure that the concerns highlighted in previous high-profile cases are not highlighted in this case.

"We would try to ensure as best we possibly can that does not happen. Each case is assessed on its merits. But regionally and nationally it has been proved, with the Baby P case, when that case was reported, child protection registers in GB went up. What we could tell from that were social workers were saying well, I am not going to be criticised for these issues that that case was criticised for.

"Children coming into the care system went up so people could possibly take decisions to move children into care prior to when they would have done if this case hadn't been publicised. They act defensively. Strategically, I do not want people to act defensively. I want staff to acting in the best interest of the child and families".

The central number to call to access the Gateway team is 028 7131 4090 and the out of hours emergency number is 028 7134 5171.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 25 Feb 10

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