The amount of children in full time care in the Southern Trust area is “the highest it has ever been,” it has been revealed.
There is an increasing need for Children’s Services provision within the Southern Health & Social Care (HSC) Trust according to to the acting chief executive of the Southern HSC Board, Colm McCafferty.
He explained that meeting that growing need was a major challenge, at a time when there is so much pressure on existing resources.
Mr McCafferty’s remarks came on the back of an overview of the pressures being faced by the Trust to meet demand for acute services.
The acting chief executive stated: “We are not just concerned with the acute services. Whilst that is absolutely a major focus at the moment, we are a community and hospitals Trust with a huge infrastructure around community care and community-based resources.
“It’s really important we do not lose focus on the need to ensure maintenance and priority of community-based services, particularly Children’s Services.
“There are really significant challenges there. All metrics are pointing to increases in referrals for family support, increased episodes of child protection.
“Of significant concern is the upwards trajectory of children becoming looked after, namely, coming into the care of the Trust.
“We have now reached the 700-mark of children in full-time care, and that is the highest that it has ever been in the Southern Trust.
“And just to contextualise that, less than 15 years ago, we had a population of approximately 350 children in full-time care.
“There are multiple reasons for that, poverty, domestic abuse, mental health, social isolation, all of which points to very, very significant community challenges and an absolute need to address that from a preventative point of view.
“Also important to point out, like many other professions, our social work line is hugely compromised, and that is around workforce supply.
“Many of our front-line teams are operating with recurrent, long-standing deficits of 30 to 40 per cent vacancies.
“The other [issue] that I think is worth referencing is the ongoing and continued pressures being experienced in adult mental health.
“All metrics [point to] an upwards trajectory in relation to the demand for mental health support, but critically for mental health in-patient care as well.”
