Monday, April 11, 2011

Over twenty children die in HSE care in past year: report

It has emerged that 27 children and young people in State care or known to the child protection services have died in the past 12 months.

According to a recent report in The Irish Times, seven of the deaths were due to suicide, four were drug overdoses and two were homicides, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday.  

A further seven died of natural causes such as diseases, four died in road traffic incidents and three in other accidents.

The news comes after Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald revealed that responsibility for taking at-risk children into care is to be taken away from the HSE, and given to a new child protection agency.  

A series of reports last year showed that 188 children had died in its care in the past decade.  

In December, it revised upwards its figure for deaths to 199 between January 1, 2000, and April 30, 2010.

An internal HSE audit last year revealed that children in State care were at risk of being placed with “unsafe carers,” while a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) showed that children who were being abused by their foster parents were forced to remain with them, despite the fact that social services were made aware of the situation by members of the public and teachers

The new figures cover the first 12 months since the executive introduced a new system for recording the deaths of children in care on March 10, 2010.  

Under this system, the executive notifies the Health Information and Quality Authority of all deaths of children in care and children known to the child protection services.  

It also records the deaths of young adults between 18 and 21 years who were previously in State care or are in receipt of aftercare services.

Gordon Jeyes, HSE national director for children and family services, said the death of any child is shocking, but the figures for deaths of children in care or known to care services in the Republic were “not out of kilter” with the figures in Britain.

The annual rate of death recorded there was 160 per year; however, the Irish system investigates children who died of natural causes, which is broader than the categories of deaths recorded in Britain.

The HSE figures show just two of the 27 children who died in the past 12 months were in a State care setting such as foster care or a residential unit.  

The largest group of deaths occurred among children who were known to the child protection services but were not in State care when they died.  

Ten young adults, who had left State care, lost their lives.

The new system for recording child deaths was introduced following concern over the HSE’s child protection service and lack of transparency regarding child deaths.  

A HSE report into the death of Tracey Fay was withheld for years before it was finally leaked by Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter in March 2010.  

Fay died in January 2002 at the age of 18 of a drug overdose, four years after being admitted to care.

Last year the Government established an independent review group to examine the case files relating to children and young people who had died and were known to the child protection services.  

The group, which includes child law expert Geoffrey Shannon and Barnardos director of advocacy Norah Gibbons, is due to report in the next few months.