Tusla allowed abusive father to decide who protected children and their mother, report finds

Tusla social workers allowed a man who was violently abusing the mother of his two children to choose three other men as “protective” people for her and the children, a report on the children’s deaths has found.

The National Review Panel (NRP) report, published on Thursday, says it “could also be asked whether it is wise for the social work department to send a letter” to the woman at the address she shared with her violent partner.

The family were from an ethnic minority “in which men and women identify with traditional gender roles that do not always accord with Western norms”, notes the report. There were cultural barriers, both parents displayed a “reluctance” to engage with Tusla and a “high level of risk had been identified”.

It is one of four report summaries from the NRP. The panel is independent of Tusla and reviews deaths of, or serious incidents involving, children in care or known to Tusla.

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“The tragic deaths of the children who are the subjects of this review could not have been predicted by any of the services involved,” says the review completed in December 2021.

Despite serious Covid restrictions “social work services... responded quickly” to a recent domestic violence incident and immediately instituted a safety plan. “Social workers did their best to work with the family in a culturally sensitive manner,” the report says.

However, Tusla’s safety plans when applied to some ethnic minority families “require reflection”, continues the report. “[T]he fact that three men also from ethnic minorities were selected by the male parent ... to act in protective roles raises questions about how their involvement may be perceived by the woman victim.”

Some of these “support people” indicated “a degree of doubt about the evidence of domestic violence” and assigned a “much lower risk rating to the situation” than Tusla did.

The review says: “The most dangerous time for a victim of violence is when she is on the verge of leaving and for six months afterwards. Seventy-six per cent of homicides occur after separation.”

Stressing violence is “not inherent” in ethnic minorities the report nonetheless says minority women may have limited trust in, and knowledge of, statutory services, and may face language barriers. “Tusla needs to develop specialist expertise towards minority ethnic groups and recognise and plan for diverse needs,” says the report.

Another report, completed in March 2020, concerns a 16-year-old boy in care, “Noah”*, who died by suicide. “His parents had a history of poor mental health and substance abuse. His father spent time in prison and died some years before Noah’s death,” the report says.

He was one of a number of children in his family, “a bright, confident young man”, interested in sport and music. Noah took prescribed medication for many years for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) but stopped taking it when he got older. He experienced difficulties in his teens, suffered with low mood and aggression and school attendance was poor.

From age 12 he always had an assigned social worker but several personnel changes in the year before he died “must have impeded the potential for relationship building”. Noah moved from the care of relatives, to foster carers, and at his request returned to live with his mother – who was still misusing substances – when he was 16 years old.

He missed appointments with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and was due to start classes in a local youth project when he died.

It is “crucial” the “needs of teenagers” are appreciated when there are child protection concerns in a family, as the focus can be on younger children.

Contact between social workers, the educational welfare service and the school counsellor was “infrequent”, which limited opportunities to address Noah’s school absenteeism. The protective role of school for many at-risk children is stressed in the report.

Other reports concerned the death of baby “Tommy”* in homeless accommodation as a result of sudden infant death syndrome and serious injuries to baby “Ruth”* following an assault by her teenage father.

*Pseudonyms given by the NRP