The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an inspection report on the child protection and welfare service operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in the Dublin Mid Leinster region. The inspection focused on the implementation of Tusla’s Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure (CASP), which came into operation in June 2022. 

HIQA conducted a focused inspection of Tusla’s CASP in the Dublin Mid Leinster region between 13 and 17 November 2023. Of the five standards assessed, the service was found to be not compliant with four standards and substantially compliant with one standard.

Overall, there were clearly defined governance arrangements and lines of responsibilities across the service; however, there was a delay in establishing some governance arrangements to provide assurances on implementing CASP at regional level. Quality assurance systems were not developed and management systems were not effective or timely in addressing the gaps in service delivery, such as gaps in case management and supervision.  

At the time of inspection, the CASP team was fully resourced, and as a result, the team had effectively reduced waiting lists for CASP assessments. However, substantial delays remained at all stages of the CASP process which did not enable the effective safeguarding of children where required and did not fully address the findings of the HIQA 2018 investigation into the management of allegations of child sexual abuse against adults of concern by Tusla. A review of cases to assess the adherence to CASP timelines found that they were not consistently met and that there were significant delays in the progression of cases through this process. There were limited records on files outlining the reasons for the delays, and no reviews of cases while they were unallocated. Monitoring and oversight of these cases was poor. 

Communication with children and families was not child centred and in line with the timelines set out in the CASP. There were significant delays ranging from three to 11 months between disclosures of abuse being made and Tusla making initial contact to explain the process and provide relevant information to parents and or guardians or children. In addition, information to explain the CASP were not child friendly and were only publicly available in English on Tusla’s website. 

Tusla was not operating in line with its requirement as a scheduled organisation under the National Vetting Bureau, (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012. This resulted in delays in these notifications being sent to the National Vetting Bureau.  

Not all child protection concerns were assessed in line with Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017). In cases where a CASP social worker, during the course of the substantiation assessment, establishes that there are further identified children at risk of abuse, it is their responsibility to refer this to the duty child protection team in order to ensure appropriate assessment and immediate action is taken to ensure that identified children are safe from harm. Inspectors found that there were delays in the referral of identified children so as to ensure the necessary protective actions or safeguarding measures were in place. 

In summary, improvements in the areas of staff supervision and case management were required to ensure better oversight of cases and adherence to time frames set out in the CASP. The inputting of case information and timely management sign-off on the Tusla Case Management System needed to be strengthened, and more timely communication with children, families and their guardians was required. Improved auditing and timely completion of notifications to the National Vetting Bureau was also required.

The inspection report and compliance plan can be found at www.hiqa.ie.

Notes: 

• HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Section 8(1)(c) of the Health Act 2007 to monitor the quality of services provided by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) to protect children and promote their welfare. HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children and advises the Minister and Tusla.
• In order to meet its statutory obligations, Tusla must carry out an assessment of allegations of child abuse in line with fair procedures. This substantiation assessment examines evidence and decides if an allegation is founded or unfounded on the balance of probabilities. This is not a criminal investigation. If the allegation is founded, a determination is made that the person who is the subject of the abuse allegations poses a potential risk to a child or children. Tusla calls its national standardised process the ‘Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure’ (CASP).