Madam, - I wish to respond to John Waters's outrageous article (August 21st) concerning his misguided opinions about social workers.
On behalf of the State, under the Child Act 1991 and Children Act 1997, the HSE is obliged to deliver its child protection and welfare services to children and families in this country. In order for the HSE to conduct this sensitive and complex duty, the HSE employs skilled and trained professional social workers.
Mr Waters's claims of "unfettered power" are wide of the mark. In fact, our social workers are obliged to conduct their work in a professional, transparent and courteous manner. They are open to, and must comply with, professional, ethical, legal and agency standards and processes.
The HSE also operates a review and complaints process, whereby any client of the HSE can make a complaint and seek a response. Some of the points which Mr Waters quotes arise from such reviews. The HSE is also subject to complaints being investigated by the Ombudsman.
The ultimate guardian of course is the court system. Mr Waters apparently believes the courts to be impotent and to blindly accept the recommendations of the social worker. Yet at another point in his article he acknowledges the "decency" of a court when they refused to grant an order. You can't have it both ways, Mr Waters. The courts can and do exercise the option to refuse a request for a care order but in the vast majority of cases they demonstrate their high regard for the social worker's professional decision-making by granting the care orders for which they apply .
Social workers do not lightly go to court and do not lightly consider taking children into care. These processes are highly stressful for all concerned.
Mr Waters paints a picture of social workers "out of control" and taking children from their families for random and spurious reasons. Actually our social workers try to ensure that separation from the family is a last resort. In the course of child protection proceedings, HSE social workers are required to undertake an assessment of reported concerns.
One of our guiding principles is that the focus of this work is to ensure that children remain with their families, where possible, and to that end we offer support services and interventions as appropriate.
However, at times children may be in need of "care and protection". If a child cannot safely remain in the care of its family, options of care within the extended family are routinely explored. The prime consideration is naturally the welfare of the child and it is our practice that children should return to their parents' care when it is safe to do so.
This child protection assessment is carried out in conjunction with parents and other agencies who know the strengths and risks of the family members. In other cases, children may also come into the voluntary care of HSE when a parent requests and needs voluntary care.
It is important to note that children in care and care proceedings account for a small proportion of the overall work undertaken by HSE social work services. The main thrust of social work services is to support families.
Our social workers are carrying out a complex and difficult role along the fault-lines of Irish society. While Mr Waters is perfectly entitled to argue for a more enlightened approach from his particular perspective, it is not reasonable to vilify the entire social work profession in the process.
As national director with overall responsibility for childcare services I don't accept that regional disparities are easily dismissed. One of the real positives of the unified system is that we can now start to examine this evidence in more detail and take the learning from it to ensure that we develop the very best service for our entire population. - Yours, etc,
AIDAN BROWNE, National Director, Primary, Community and Continuing Care Directorate, HSE, Dublin.