HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny - hiqa.ie

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Inspection of the HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny Local Health Area in theHSE South RegionHealth Information and Quality AuthorityTheme 5: WorkforceThe service organises and manages its workforce to ensure that staff members havethe required knowledge, skills, experience and competencies to protect children andpromote their welfare and to provide an effective service to children and families.Related reference:• Standard 5.1 – Safe recruitment practices are in place to recruit staff with therequired competencies to protect children and promote their welfare.• Standard 5.2 – Staff have the required skills and experience to manage anddeliver effective services.• Standard 5.3 – All staff are supported and receive supervision in their work toprotect children and promote their welfare to children.• Standard 5.4 – Child protection and welfare training is provided to staff toimprove outcomes for children.Standard 5:1 – Safe recruitment practices are in place to recruit staff withthe required competencies to protect children and promote their welfareThis standard was met in partThe current recruitment process was found to be safe and robust but significantdeficits were found in the vetting of members of staff who had been in the serviceprior to the HSE centralised recruitment system.The LHA adhered to the HSE national recruitment policy; recently appointed staff hadgone through a centralised interview process and had been selected from a nationalpanel in order of merit. Inspectors found records of interviews and the decisionsmade on many staff files. These files also contained job descriptions and signedcontracts for all recently appointed staff. Inspectors also found evidence ofappropriate qualifications, Garda Síochána vetting and three verified references inplace for all staff appointed within the last five years. The acting principal socialworker told inspectors that the LHA did not use agency or relief staff.However, staff personnel records were not well organised, in a poor physical stateand some lacked the requisite vetting. Staff records were stored in paper folderswhich were not strong enough to safely hold all of the documentation containedwithin. There was a risk that important documentation might be lost due to the poorquality of the files. Records were not in chronological order or divided into subsectionsand as such inspectors found them difficult to navigate and to retrieve42
Inspection of the HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny Local Health Area in theHSE South RegionHealth Information and Quality Authorityinformation with expedience. References were stored in brown envelopes stapled tothe paper folders and again there was a risk of these being mislaid.Many staff files required considerable updating and inspectors found 40% of stafffiles audited did not contain the requisite Garda Síochána vetting. These filespertained to long-standing members of staff, including some of the managementteam. The absence of Garda Síochána vetting was of significant concern andindicated a serious deficit. The area manager told inspectors that the LHA hadcommenced a re-vetting process for relevant staff. Most files contained the threenecessary references, but not all of these had been independently verified.There was no standardised, consistent formal induction programme in place acrossthe service although some good practice was found. One social worker described aninformal induction process that included visiting the department in advance ofcommencing employment. They received a written induction pack and wereintroduced to relevant agencies. Core training was provided including Children First(2011), courtroom skills, fire safety and manual handling. This social worker wasgiven a protected caseload, more frequent supervision and was initially accompaniedby another social worker whilst on duty. Another social worker had not receivedsupervision within the first five months of service and did not have a protectedcaseload. As previously stated, information about local resources and services ofdirect benefit to children and families was not routinely available. The expectationthat social workers would build up their own catalogue of resources as theirknowledge and experience grew could have a negative impact on their ability toengage families with the most relevant services, in a timely fashion and provide themwith services they needed. The lack of a formalised induction programme led tosignificant variations in the experience of new social workers to the service.Standard 5:2 – Staff have the required skills and experience to manageand deliver effective servicesThis standard was met in partStaff retention was high and there was a long-standing, experienced staff team inplace. Information provided to the Authority identified that the staff team was stableand a significant number of social workers had been in post for many years. As aresult, there was a continuity of staffing which had a direct benefit for children andfamilies. Through case file review, observation of practice and interviews withparents, inspectors found social work practice to be of a good standard across theservice. Overall, inspectors found that staff were skilled and competent to meet theneeds of the children and families with whom they engaged. All staff wereprofessionally qualified. The rate of absenteeism was notably low at 2.4%. Of the32.3 whole-time equivalent posts available to the service, there was one permanentvacancy at the time of inspection and six members of staff were on long-term leave;this had a direct negative impact on service provision.43
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HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Carlow/Kilkenny - hiqa.ie

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