Tusla

Tusla and the opw are the two biggest wasters of money an manpower in the state ,

tusla particularly are over staffed if anything but the standards and protocols that they use are so poorly though out and enforced that it is often nearly laughable.

Its always some one else's job or the person your need to speak to or need to make the call on something is away for weeks or months

they spend most of their time tryin to drop their responsibilities on other state agency's and heading off for a conference some where .

of course this is just my professional experience with them since they were established

As a social worker I can tell you that front line staff in Tusla are becoming burnt out with the work load and lack of support from higher management and that is part of the problem. It doesn't help that the public have a negative view of the job too, we are either cnuts who take kids from their parents or cnuts who don't intervene enough. My own issue is seeing a family and having concerns about the welfare of the children only to have that file signed off by a line manager who says all is ok and nothing to see here. It's also frustrating to have families who are struggling but who want to do better being left struggling by lack of support services and the fact that things often have to escalate before any intervention is offered. It's the reason I'm retraining to leave the sector, its really starting to impact on my own health. Anyway rant over.

I have a lot of respect for TUSLA, they have a thankless job and are overloaded due to Childrens First referrals. I was reported by someone because I said a 15 year old who was acting the bollix needed "a kick in the hole and needed to cop on". That is a threat to a child.

The investigation lasted 90 seconds and was by telephone. They have a massive work load and their numbers are dropping due to this. They are under staffed and struggling. Until the system is revamped (again), it will not improve.

It is the same with the Gardai. A sergeant friend of mine mentioned that policy is "call the guards", they have no way of getting to incidents in a reasonable time frame and get crap because of it.

I was at a BBQ at the weekend with another garda and he is one of 2 drivers trained in a station. He cannot come off the road as he is trained, but his paperwork is just mounting.

They lost huge credibility when they were involved in the smear campaign against Sgt Maurice McCabe. Very dodgy antics and we never really got accountability.

I'm curious how are they to do there job better while kepping every steakholder happy and also who should be paying for it. I'm not saying there are not issues but when an individual starts in the civil service they don't know what department they will be sent to, some departments are much easier to do your job in than others no one starts out saying I can't be bothered. Therefore something else is going on.

Friends of mine recently had the opposite experience. Their kid told a teacher in passing that his dad slapped him on the hand when he was hitting his brother. The teacher reported it to TUSLA. Weeks of harassment by TUSLA followed. Repeated phone calls, meetings with social workers, being made go to parenting classes, being made take anger management courses, having to deal with a pr!ck of a social worker smirking at them and asking them when their started beating their child and did they beat their other children........and then having to deal with the Garda as TUSLA passed on the complaint of assault to them. It got to the stage where the Dad became suicidal. If only they put that much effort into following up on genuine cases of child neglect and abuse.

You have a friend who hits his kid, and you think it's not genuine child abuse?

Thank you - I'm taking that as a compliment.

Beating kids is not OK, and there are far too few people in this country willing to say so.

One single slap on the hand doesn't get someone reported to Tulsa. The teacher will have had suspicions based on the child's behaviour or development, and the comment about the slap (sic) will have been a moment that tipped the balance towards a report.

Tusla staff don't have time to waste on families that don't need intervention.

With respect, would it not have to be investigated at some level to determine if it is ongoing and persistent.

I work in a job where I need 'children first' training. So if, under those guidelines, I report that a child was slapped as I'm required to do, would you tell me to come back when I know it's ongoing and persistent?

Ah the old no smoke without fire argument. Wasn't that what TUSLA used to try and destroy Maurice McCabe?

In the case I am referring to I can tell you there were categorically no other incidents or issues. This came completely out of the blue for a family with 4 kids who had never had any issues before. The social worker involved was very green and this seems to have been used as a training exercise for her. I am told there was a more senior social worker on the telephone calls coaching her on what to say, how to respond to the parents and in particular how to goad the Dad (the tell me when you started to beat your children type questions). The level of excessive pressure placed on the family was unbelievable, as I mentioned in my earlier post the Dad became suicidal and was off work for three months. TUSLA nearly destroyed this family. It was obvious that they were seen as an easier target / training case for the junior staff member, nice middle class respectable people who wouldn't fight back and who could be labelled as a successful intervention and closed case making the numbers look good. When you look at what some kids in this country have to endure without any intervention bu TUSLA it does make you wonder about them as an organisation.

Like every single state run body in this country.