Number of children in full-time care in Southern Trust area at its highest ever
An unprecedented number of children are now in full-time care within the Southern HSC Trust, it’s been revealed.
Southern HSC Trust, Executive Director of Social Work, Colm McCafferty, spoke on the latest situation at the January Trust board meeting, where he confirmed that despite the ever-growing demands on children’s services, there has been success in recruiting new staff.
Staff shortages have been an ongoing issue, however Mr McCafferty, who is also the head of Young People and Women’s Services, reported some good news.
He commented: “I believe there have been tangible and sustainable improvements over the past six to 12 months in relation to our social work positions, usually challenging over the past number of years, because of significant vacancies.
“I am able to report that we are making some gains, particularly over the last six to 10 months.
“I’m quietly confident that as time progresses, we will continue to make some progress in respect of that.
“Another welcome development is the increased usage of kinship care placements for our children.
“We have a very vibrant short break service for children with disabilities, which we will continue to develop.
“Over the past year, we have provided approximately 2,100 overnight short breaks for children with disabilities within a family home, and that is a much-needed resource and support for children with disabilities and their families.
“We continue to make a significant commitment to our fostering services in terms of recruiting additional carers, and overall, while there are never sufficient placement numbers, we actually perform very well in relation to recruiting foster carers into our own care provision.
“In terms of workforce, while we have made significant gains, we still have significant vacancies across frontline services, in the region of 25 to 30 per cent in some instances, but we have mitigations in place.
“Due to vacancies in our frontline children’s services, we have a small number of looked-after children that do not have a consistent allocated social worker.
“As a social worker, that does concern me considerably. Having said that, we do have very clear mitigations in place. I am not overly concerned about any risk the Trust board needs to be aware of, because these children are invariably placed in sound, settled, loving foster placements, and we do have very clear multidisciplinary overview with regards to their circumstances.
“We have now reached 700 children in full-time care in the Southern Trust, a number which we have never experienced before. That is an issue that we need to be mindful of.
“I do want to acknowledge and thank staff and managers within social care for working in very challenging circumstances, and for managing, on a regular basis, in the context of very significant vacancies.
“I also want to formally acknowledge the massive contribution of approximately 300 foster households across the Southern Trust, all of whom have their own responsibilities.
“Many have their own children and so forth, but they find space to make that additional effort within their homes to bring in children who do require love and attention.”
Chair of the Southern HSC Trust board, Eileen Mullan commented: “The growing numbers [of children needing care] is concerning. Kindship care has always been good in this Trust.
“I think the team are doing amazing [work] with what they have.”