Sharon Keogan raises alarm over private care for children
Senator Sharon Keogan questions officials about 1,800 complaints on children’s public services, highlighting that 31% concern special needs education, delays in assessment and lack of supports. She presses on the use of private providers in emergency care, the award of contracts for children seeking international protection, and the implications of incorporating the UNCRC.
Complaints and special needs: Keogan opens by citing the Ombudsman’s 1,800 complaints and notes that almost a third relate to special needs education - from lack of spaces to delayed assessments and therapies. She asks what the relevant departments have done to resolve systemic failures and what follow-up has been pursued with the Department of Education, NCSE and NCCA.
Emergency arrangements and private providers: Keogan confronts the panel about special emergency arrangements for children in care, referencing reports of funds channelled to private and unregulated providers and serious allegations that some placements had unqualified staff where children were locked in rooms and exposed to drugs, exploitation and grooming.
Contracting concerns and international protection: The senator raises a specific concern reported by the Children’s Rights Alliance about a contract for children seeking international protection being awarded to Allpro services, questioning whether inexperienced providers are being entrusted with vulnerable, unaccompanied minors.
UNCRC and policy implications: Keogan links these failings to the case for incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law, arguing that a rights-based approach would reduce reliance on private provision and help protect children’s best interests. She presses for clearer government oversight and accountable commissioning of services.
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Thank you and good morning to you Mr Muldoon and thank you for joining us here this morning. Just a few questions, I know a lot of people have already asked a number of the questions that I was planning to ask. But the 1800 complaints mainly have been about children's public services, whether it be education, health services or TUSA complaints. So 31% of those were dealing with the education, the special needs education in this country, maybe lack of spaces, delays in special needs assessment and services and therapies that are available for those with special needs. What have you tried to address, what have you done to try to address these issues with the various departments and what recommendations would you, obviously we all know what the departments need to do, but how have you tried to address that with the various departments in relation to 31% of your complaints in relation to education and special needs? That's the first question. Yeah, I mean we're constantly engaging with the department on individual complaints. We've dealt with them over time and we get a lot of quick wins out of the 1800s, we get a lot of quick wins, so oftentimes it would just be a case of it's poor communication or it's a lack of awareness of the impact. So we would engage with schools immediately and quickly and probably 75% of our cases are solved within the first six weeks because that's the way we wanted local procedures as the way forward and quick, rapid solutions. The more complicated ones we will engage and we're constantly engaged in the Department of Education, we're looking at things like the access to services, I spoke earlier about the education planning for buildings and places for children. We engage with the NCSE, we engage with the Department of Education, we've engaged with NCCA in regards to curriculum as well. So wherever we need to go, we go and we've been doing that for many years and as you can see from our annual reports over the years, the number of complaints in regards to education is actually coming down. So from our point of view, they're probably left with the more complicated, more serious complaints coming in at this point, but the Education Department are getting better and I think part of that is because they've started to listen to children, because they've got a participation unit, but we're constantly on their back and we're constantly pushing to do things in all areas of children's lives in the education system. The same with TOOSLA and the same with the Department of Health, who are the top three issues. And in relation to special emergency arrangements, earlier this year you basically, I think you called it stomach churning, the care crisis that is there within TOOSLA in relation to special emergency arrangements that are made for children in care and you also flagged the millions of euros that have been funneled to private and unregulated profit makers in the provision of these emergency arrangements and where you had many, many of these places that had unqualified staff, resulting in children being locked in rooms and exposed to drugs and exploitation and sometimes grooming. I think we all got a letter there during the week from Children's Rights Alliance highlighting how the contract for the children seeking international protection in this country was given to Adpro services and they were highlighting the fact that this particular company had no... Senator Keoghan, sorry, just that the agenda item this morning is on consideration of incorporating the UNCRC certificate. All right, maybe this is something that he might be able to, because obviously it does affect international children that are coming into this country that are seeking international protection. So would you have any concerns that a contract has been awarded to such a vulnerable group of children coming to this country to a company that has actually no experience whatsoever dealing with those children? Senator, just to remind you, we can't name a company that aren't here present, so I won't be asking the honourable gentleman to answer that. All right, so he's not going to answer that question. If he's not going to answer that question, then I have no more questions. Do you want to ask around special emergency arrangements and how the incorporation of the UNCRC might impact that? Well, that is a question, but I mean, if the government here are clearly giving contracts to people that have absolutely no experience of special arrangements, cares for children, what's the point in asking that question? Well, special emergency arrangements aren't... Well, I mean, maybe you could give us some indication on your views in relation to these unregulated profit makers that are coming into this sector, and really they do not have the best interests of the child at heart. And as you've pointed out before, many of the people that are working in these facilities are unqualified. So do you have any concerns around that when it comes to children that are separated through international protection and unaccompanied minors that arrive into this country? And Dr. Muldoon, if you could answer with reference to the agenda item, that would be helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, we've been on record for a long time to say that the use of private enterprise is not necessarily the way forward, which should always be under the control of the government. And there's also a commitment within TUSLA from 2021 to reduce the reliance on private providers because, again, the control and the use of certain services means that oftentimes the private service will choose the easiest child to work with, and that makes it much more difficult. So from our point of view, again, you're looking at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guiding you, that making no legislation, no policy decision that would be contrary to the rights of the child. And I think that's the sort of guidance and change of culture that would make a difference throughout a lot of these decision making. So again, I'd bring it back to the finance side of things. The choice to force TUSLA to go down the hiring of private services because that doesn't add to your workload or your payroll is a short termism and it causes awful problems. And we can see from abroad, from England, that when private companies took over 70% of the services for children in care, it ultimately led to close to a monopoly. They were able to charge whatever they wanted. They didn't necessarily provide the best services and they cherry picked who they worked with. And that in turn led to a collapse of the system. In England then, they did re-look at it and have changed the system since then. And again, you can see from Scotland, they're trying to move by 2030 away from that private market led scenario. And we need to be doing the same thing from our point of view. And I think with the UN Convention incorporated within law, that would be much less likely to happen than it is at the moment. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.
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