‘More children will end up in care if we don’t take decisions’ - Calls for action as children’s social services report gathers dust

ONE year after the publication of a major report into children’s social care services in Northern Ireland, its author has warned more children will end up in care without action.

Professor Ray Jones spent 18 months on the review which involved speaking to children in care, social workers and many more to understand the situation in Northern Ireland.

He found that a record high of more than 4,000 children were on waiting lists for social care, with many waiting over a year.

In recent weeks, social care workers for children’s services in the Belfast Trust area took strike action over crippling workforce shortages they said were put vulnerable children at risk as more families deteriorated into crisis.

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Speaking to The Irish News, Prof Jones said he feared the report was gathering dust like so many other health reviews, but that the changes needed were within reach.

“The reason it was commissioned in the first place in 2021 was because there were big concerns about how children and social care services were being delivered,” he said.

“There was a major crisis in workforce, long waiting lists for children and families to meet with social workers.

“Within the services, there was increasing numbers of child protection activity, looked after children.

“This wasn’t in one particular area, it was right across the region and going on for a long time.

“Things were not good then and, to be honest, they’ve got worse.

“The number of children in care has reached a historic record of 4,000.

“That’s making it very difficult to find all the foster care and residential care needed for those children and young people.”

“Families are also struggling with increasing poverty, they’re not getting the help they need when they’re unable to care for their children.”

Another issue was that the shrinking workforce was also becoming more inexperienced, as fewer people chose to stay.

A key recommendation is for a separate children and social care services agency across Northern Ireland, rather than being divided between the five health trusts.

Professor Jones said this would provide more consistency in services and revitalise the voluntary sector.

He also said there was confusion between the Department of Health and those providing services about who had the authority to change things.

With the review published before Stormont returned and a new health minister just in place, Prof Jones said he was concerned there was “no history of politicians doing anything with the review”.

“That causes me great concern. If they don’t step up to the mark and take decisions, what’s going to happen is that children will be left stranded without the help they need.

“Decisions that need to be taken to give people authority to deal with this won’t be taken.

“The amount of children coming into care will continue to increase if families don’t get the support they need, and the workforce will continue to be in crisis because people won’t stay in a job they can’t do properly.”

He continued: “My message to (health minister) Mike Nesbitt is that this is sortable. This is something you need to get to grips with and if you give attention to it, you can make a real difference.

“Amongst all the other things on the agenda around hospitals, ambulances, elective surgery, family care.

“Those issues are not intractable, but they’re going to take a long time to get sorted out.

“Children’s social care is quite specific. With a population of just 1.9 million you can actually get to grips with this quite quickly.”

During the review process, he said that no one was able to tell him exactly how much was being spent on children’s social services.

“I found that quite concerning and shocking, because you can’t know then if it’s being spent properly,” he said.

One major positive about his recommendations, he said, was that it would only need “time-limited funding” over two years to manage a transition.

“You need a board and a chief executive, but we’re not talking about a large sum of money in the grand scheme of things.

“If we don’t do that we’re going to just keep wasting money.”

A Department for Health spokesperson said: “A public consultation into the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Children’s Social Care Services closed in early December.

“The analysis of the responses to the consultation is complete and advice is being prepared.

“It is the department’s intention to make decisions on the way forward as quickly as possible.”