Tusla’s special care centre staff have lost tens of thousands of days at work due to being harassed, injured or forced to take sick leave since 2021.
A briefing note on Tusla’s residential care capacity said more than 10,000 days of work had been lost to sickness or harassment at three special care units in 2023 alone.
Detention in special care is a last resort for children aged 11 to 17 whose health and safety are at risk.
They can only be held in special care on the order of the High Court. Tusla, the child and family agency, is legally obliged to find a special care place for a child once such an order is made.
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A national shortage of special care places has been exacerbated by a recruitment and retention crisis, leading to Tusla being criticised in the courts if and when it is unable to find a place for some of the country’s most at-risk children.
According to the internal Tusla report – released by the agency under the Freedom of Information Act – by spring last year the total number of staff leaving special care was “greater than the number of staff hired”.
Overall, between 2021 and last year, 168 staff had been hired, but 134 had left, with 37 transferring to different roles. Another two people retired, while one was unable to work due to ill health.
The report, prepared in April 2024, also noted that absenteeism among staff in special care was “relatively high, largely driven by a significant number of incidents of violence, harassment and aggression in the context of escalation of a young person’s behaviour because of their complex needs”.
The State has three special care units: Ballydowd and Crannog Nua in Dublin and Coovagh House in Limerick.
In 2023, there were a total of 10,199 days lost across all three units to violence, harassment, harassment, aggression or illness experienced by staff. Tusla said this included 2,240 days lost to assault of staff working in the three special-care units.
In 2022, the total for days lost to violence, harassment, aggression or illness was 8,981. In 2021 there were 10,019 days lost.
Reports of violence, harassment and aggression incidents to the Health and Safety Authority from the three special-care facilities and mainstream children’s residential services increased from 27 in 2021 to 44 in 2023.
Staff in special care reported most incidents, accounting for 39 of the 44 incidents reported in 2023.
In the report, Tusla said that it was “anticipated that for the foreseeable future, [Tusla] will continue to experience ongoing and significant difficulties in staff recruitment and retention which will impair its ability to make available beds in residential care”.
It also said: “This is an ongoing and systemic problem, which is not confined to a simple question of financial resources or the responsibility of a single agency, but which relates to the need for additional resources, policy and legislative changes, creative thinking and an inter-agency and whole-of-government approach.”
