4,228 entries for Historical Context

The Social Workers of Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Dublin, in their submission argued that: We feel that foster parents should be drawn from all stratas of society and that where possible the child should be placed with people of a similar background to his own. It is important that a child in a foster home should receive adequate stimulation, particularly in early years. In order to acquire the right type of foster parent we consider that it is an absolute necessity that they should receive adequate financial compensation: that it should be looked upon as a profession or career rather than a ‘vocation’ or doing a good deed as in the past.’238

As part of their submission to the Task Force, the Western Health Board reviewed a sample of cases in their two residential facilities, St Joseph’s School and St Anne’s and provides a detailed analysis of the changes that had taken place in these two Industrial Schools since the publication of the Kennedy Report. The report, authored by R O’Flaherty, concluded: Both institutions visited are making sincere efforts to put into effect the recommendations of the Kennedy Report and the CARE Memorandum. Small group living and eating arrangements are taking effect. Small, private bedrooms, in which family members live together, help to preserve the all important family connection. The elder children are thus readily available to give support to younger siblings, and the youngsters know that help is near from the older children. The staffs are obviously keenly interested in the welfare of the children charged to their care. Staff are in constant contact with the family in the home community, and I was impressed with the depth of their knowledge about home dynamics. I can see no reason why the group homes could not cater for both sexes. That said, the question still remains, why are these children in group homes? In only one case was a thorough pre-placement assessment done, with psychiatrist’s report recommending group home placement for a fixed time to provide needed controls. This treatment could just as well, I feel, have been provided in the child’s home community. One of the problem areas discovered, and one of the reasons why older children are placed residentially, is lack of ongoing casework services being available to foster home parents. With such help, foster parents could be aided in dealing with the child’s onset of adolescence (many manifestations of which are quite normal) while keeping him in the home....If at all possible, children should be allowed frequent visits to the natural family to both keep alive the family connection and to avoid over-identification with the institution which, in severe cases, may cause children to run back to the security they know, rather than try to get on in a new living arrangement...New foster parents should be recruited by arrangements being made more attractive to potential foster home parents and, of course, counselling should be available to such persons recruited.’239

In a separate submission replying to O’Flaherty’s report, the Manager of St Joseph’s Residential Home in Lower Salthill, Br DE Drohan, made the following observations on the reasons why the children were in residential care: The family structures and environment from which these children come from cannot supply the physical, emotional and psychological needs of the child. Most of the parents are very inadequate. Relationships between the parents are shallow and in some cases they are only co-existing. The relationship between the children and the parents before coming into residential care was often shallow and of little therapeutic value. This should have been very clear to Mr. Flaherty. We fail to see why it was necessary to ask this question. We can state that the group residential setting has helped improve the child/parent relationship. It is true that if long term case work backed up with in-depth social services had been given to these families there is the possibility that some of the children would not have come into residential care. But the hard fact must be faced that many of these parents are so damaged psychologically that they cannot give their children the love, concern, security and support that they need....We agree that every effort must be made to maintain the contact between the child and his parents. The parents should be allowed to visit the child frequently in the residential setting. Also the child should be allowed to visit his natural family frequently. The decision for this must rest with the professional child care worker after consulting other interested agencies. Serious ‘Stress’ can be put on the child who visits a home where the parents are suffering from psychiatric problems or where there are alcoholic parents / or a parent. This ‘stress’ can cause much disturbance to the child and retard the residential group home therapeutic programme. This is a point often missed by social workers.240

The Manager of the other Residential Home in the Western Health Board, St Ann’s Residential Home, Lenaboy, Taylor’s Hill, Sr M Veronica Walsh also commented on the report, noting: I fail to see how these children could be provided for in their own community even if special Education facilities were available as in Renmore. In most cases these children were emotionally disturbed prior to their admission and would require trained personnel to cater for their needs. I am not ruling out foster homes. There are exceptions but trained personnel are rarely found in such homes. We have personal experience in breakdown of foster homes, which leaves the children with a double rejection.241

The aforementioned Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers also sent a detailed submission to the Task Force, noting: In the past, children have been too readily removed from their families. We are convinced that the appointment of a sufficient number of trained social workers would, quite often, prevent this happening. They, with their special skills, would detect some of the beginnings of family breakdown. With this in mind we have often recommended that school attendance officers should be trained social workers...we do not agree, however, that Residential Homes (Industrial Schools) should be broken up into self-contained units, as this only perpetuates the old institutional environment. The Joint Committee of Women’s Societies would oppose the spending of State funds in this make-do manner. We want something better for our children...We must cease to institutionalise our children. We recommend in order of preference: Fosterage, chosen and supervised by properly qualified Children’s Officers, and payment for services rendered by Foster Parents should relate to such payments now made to institutions....Single houses, in various Housing Estates should be made available when enough foster homes cannot be found. This kind of placement is especially valuable when children of one family are taken into care. Cost must not be made an excuse for this kind of placement.242

On the issue of juvenile justice, the Committee reiterated: our demand that the age of criminal responsibility should be raised to, at least, 12 years. We repeat also that changes must be made in the Court for children. We would suggest the Magistrates type of Court similar to the one used in England, but the Chairman must be qualified to deal with difficult children, and magistrates should be chosen from a Panel chosen from people with a wide experience of their problem. Free legal Aid should be readily available, and there must be an increase in the number of Probation Officers throughout the Republic.243

They also suggested an amendment to the Children Act 1908, as they argued: Managers of such schools should not have the power, given in the Children’s Act 1908, to transfer a child to another School without the Court’s sanction. The date stated for leaving should be strictly adhered to, and not as at present when girls have remained in convents for long periods until they have become unfit for re-emergence into society.244

The voluntary organisation, Children First245, suggested that: The whole area of fosterage and residential care should be re-examined. Subject to proper regulations for supervision and inspection [both pre-and post-placement], fosterage, both short and long term, should be more widely encouraged. In cases where Residential Homes are the most satisfactory solution, the recommendations of the Kennedy Report should be implemented: Individual houses should be provided for 7-9 children of different ages and sexes cared for by a trained house mother and house father [the latter having, also a normal job].246

The Manager of St Joseph’s, Tivoli Road, Dun Laoghaire,247 highlighted the importance of teachers and argued: Teachers in Primary Schools should be reminded that they are the ones who are in the best position to detect possible home problems. Neglect at home shows itself at school in sleepiness, non-attention, lack of concentration, homework badly done etc. Problems thus detected should be made known to the Community Social Worker.248

On the suitability of placements, the manager suggested that: If children have to be put into care, it is very important that they should be put in the most suitable home. The amount of contact with the family which is desirable should be taken into account. Very often admissions are made on the criterion ‘wherever there is a vacancy’ [While proximity to the home and surroundings of the child might be held as the ideal, there are times when the opposite is best for all]. The Referral Agency should be able to protect the Residential Home from having to hand back innocent children to irresponsible parents who come and take them at whim.249

In addition, she argued that: A full Report on each child to be sent by the Referral Agency to the Residential Home. A decision made as to who the Social Worker is, who is responsible for the child being admitted. It is important that the Social Worker visit the child regularly. In the event of a change, the child should be told, and the new Social Worker taking over should be introduced by the one who is leaving. In regard to above, it is important that the Social Worker understand her role. She is the link between the child’s past and present, and she should support the child and help him to accept the fact of being ‘in care’.250

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in its submission noted that section 14 of the Children Act 1908, which related to begging, was being ignored and stated: We realise the futility of fining Itinerants as a deterrent, and it is a matter of concern to us, that, between the well-meaning efforts of the public who keep on giving money when approached, and the lenient ‘we have got to be the Travellers Friend’ attitude of Itinerant Settlement Committees Social Workers, many children are exposed to cold and wet conditions.251

For children in care, they recommended that there should be: a Statutory obligation to review every three months the progress of any Child in Care whether committed through the Courts, or admitted Voluntarily by a Home or through the Health Board, whether short or long term. By progress, we mean the child’s physical, emotional, education and social well-being. Case Conferences should take place within the Homes so that caring Staff can be involved. We deplore the present system whereby Religious Staff in Residential care are often poorly qualified, unpaid and expected to work long hours under conditions of stress without adequate support or information. Offenders and non-offenders should not be mixed. Short term and long term should not be mixed. The only categories which should be mixed are sex, age and family structure. Residential care should be seen as therapeutic to alleviate emotional, physical, and psychological damage. Damage during developmental years may have resulted from inadequate parenting, poor housing and environmental deficiencies. All these homes will need properly trained Child Care Staff with Director: preferably, we feel who should not be a religious. The Homes need a Social Worker of their own, to act both inside the Unit with Staff and Children, and to liaise with outside Social Workers. We feel this is better than an outside Social Worker who is unable to support the Caring Staff, who indeed may make them feel ‘threatened’ and cannot be aware of the internal day to day stresses. The turnover of External Social Workers is high and, most important, some children in care may be neglected completely if there is no inside Social Worker.252

The system of inspecting children’s homes also required rethinking, their submission argued: The present system whereby the best toys and linen are brought out in anticipation of the visit from ‘The Department’ is futile. We feel that regular visiting of Children’s Homes by a qualified Social Worker who would do more than inspect the beds and have tea in the parlour. Administration Staff in Residential Care have many problems which could be ironed out if a sympathetic trained person visited regularly and spent perhaps a day or two getting the real feel of the home.253

The Finglas Children’s Centre in their submission provided information on a sample of 442 boys who had been referred to the Centre by the Courts for assessment during the period 14.01 .1972 to 1.07 .1974 and noted that: Inadequate parental support emerges as a salient contributory factor in the case of almost every boy who has been sent to the Centre for Assessment...While allowing for the fact that 43 percent of our boys were from economically depressed central city areas (predominantly Postal Area 1) and that 67 percent of them came from families in which there were at least seven children, (the contributory factors) are closely associated with a very distinctive feature of the children referred by the Courts for assessment, namely, physical diminutiveness.254