Although horrifying, the report by RTÉ Investigates into the family law court system documenting the crisis in the care of this country’s most vulnerable children comes as no surprise to those of us working to safeguard children and young people in Ireland.
However, it is soul-destroying to hear a teenage girl describe herself as an ‘Amazon parcel’, adding that “when you are being moved around from house to house, it felt like, we are kind of second choice”.
At ISPCC, we understand the ongoing trauma faced by young people in care, who spend their lives being moved from place to place and dread their 18th birthday. This milestone is not a time of joy but instead signifies the removal of the State safety net, such as it exists for them, and an uncertain future ahead.
Our Childline Therapeutic Support Team hear, every day, how deeply instability traumatises children and teenagers in care.
One 17-year-old broke down as he explained that his foster family had already made it clear there would be no place for him in their home once he turned 18.
For younger children, being placed in a foster home can be equally troubling. One child told us that his birth family had warned him not to trust his foster family or social workers. Confused, he ran away, back to his parent. He was then devastated to discover that his parent wasn’t in a position to care for him, so he was moved again to another foster placement, compounding his sense of loss, isolation and confusion.
There is no doubt that the system is utterly broken, despite the best efforts of those working within it. There are no easy answers to deal with the complexity of this crisis and the traumatic aftermath of these experiences.
Greater support is required for foster families, so that children in need feel secure and safe. When a child in care feels like an Amazon parcel, it tells us that they’ve learned to see themselves as an inanimate object that needs to be processed and moved around, a burden on the system and not a real person. The legacy of that trauma will have a defining impact on their life.
As a society, we should be appalled that some of our most vulnerable children and young people are treated like this. Is it because we feel as a society that we expect those placed in foster care to feel grateful that they have a roof over their head? When the truth is that we simply must support them, their families and their foster carers so much more.
At ISPCC, we believe that the key is early intervention; the first step is to support families in their home. We support Tusla’s local integrated service model, a streamlined process of one file for one child, ensuring that no child gets lost in the system.
Programmes such as ISPCC’s NVR – Non Violent Resistance – which supports parents and carers facing child to parent violence, can help with behaviours in the home.
Increased access to counselling and therapeutic support can make a defining difference to the lives of all those involved.
We call for greater after-care so that young people are properly supported once they turn 18, and greater in-house residential care provided by Tusla so that it is not necessary to use unregulated providers, irrespective of the budget constraints. Additional supports for foster carers are essential. While there are examples of young people surviving the system and breaking the cycle of need, these are outliers.
We must increase the voice of the child in the courts and listen to the children and young people who need us.
We must provide proper help and support for children and young people placed in care. It is our societal duty and we can no longer shirk it.
