The judge in a District court in a provincial city granted a 12-month extension to the existing one-year care orders of two young children, an older girl and a younger boy, both of primary school age, and whose mother was from an east European ethnic background. The mother consented to the application.
The judge also made a number of directions, one of which was that the Child and Family Agency (CFA) would source and fund a private specialist who could provide therapeutic supports for the mother in her native language. She also directed that multidisciplinary assistance be provided urgently to the younger boy who was suffering from ongoing toileting issues and that if such assistance could not be provided by the public services within the following month, then it was to be sourced privately.
The mother had a disability that required her to use a powered wheelchair. She was accompanied by a HSE support worker who spoke her native language.
The solicitor for the CFA told the court that the application to extend the children’s care orders was based on a) a Parental Capacity Assessment that had been conducted by a HSE Assessment and Resource Centre, and b) the social worker report.
A number of professionals from a HSE Assessment and Resource Centre, who had been involved in conducting the parental capacity assessment, were present in court to give their evidence.
Psychologist’s evidence
The psychologist from the HSE’s Assessment and Resource Centre was the first to give evidence. She told the court that when she had met with the children’s mother for the assessment, she had been accompanied by an interpreter and an advocate from the HSE.
The mother had been open with her. The mother had had a challenging personal family history. Her early youth had been filled with difficult events. She had attended school, but her schooling had reflected a very different cultural background. The psychologist had found that she had quite good functional skills. However, her past traumatic events meant that she struggled with some adaptive skills and would require significant support.
The mother’s mental health assessment had scored highly in relation to traumatic experiences. Topsey, a tool that measures parenting self-efficacy, had highlighted differences in how she viewed her ability to discipline children. This was likely to require support. She had also showed an elevated potential for child abuse.
The psychologist said that this was not a predictive assessment. Rather that the mother had tended towards having some characteristics of someone who might abuse children – this had included certain attitudes towards children (for example, to be seen and not heard) which were cultural. However, she emphasised again that this assessment was not determinative or static. Under the right conditions, it was possible that the mother would engage in therapy herself. This would help her and the outcomes of a future assessment might be different. The psychologist said, at this point in time, her assessment was that the mother did not have the capacity to parent her children.
The solicitor for the children’s guardian ad litem (GAL) told the court that the GAL had recommended that the mother would have access to supports in her own language. While the mother had good English for everyday use, an interpreter would be important for therapeutic interventions. The judge supported this recommendation. The HSE support worker who had accompanied the mother to court said that she would continue to assist the mother.
Social care leader’s evidence
The social care leader at the HSE’s Assessment and Resource Centre told the court that assessments at the Assessment and Resource Centre tended to take a longer time and usually involved observations at the Centre’s residential unit as well as home assessments. The children were also part of the assessment. This assessment had involved at least 10 home visits and included an educational assessment as well.
The social care leader said that there had been concerns for the children’s well-being and safety from the very first visit. The home visits had taken place at different times, the team had split them up to include mornings, afternoons and evenings, to get as clear a picture as possible of the conditions for the children. One thing had been clear: there was a very strong bond between the children and their mother and a lot of affection and warmth from both children towards their mother. This was particularly the case for the young girl, but even though the young boy had acted out, it was clear he also loved his mother.
Relationships were good when everything was stable but something would happen that would be a trigger. The children needed boundaries to be set. They did not have predictability or any sense of routines. They were not going to school at the time of the assessment, though that situation had improved since. However, the children did not have a day to day routine. At times the house was well presented, but this fluctuated depending on the mother’s own abilities. When she had been feeling well, she had made efforts to keep the house, but overall, it was not well kept. The children had presented with personal hygiene issues, their clothes would be dirty and they had had lice.
However, the social care leader’s biggest concern was that the mother would make hurtful comments when the children had acted out. She struggled to manage the children. She would make promises of gifts but would not be able to follow through on those promises. The children’s concerning behaviours had been escalating. The Assessment and Resource Centre itself had made referrals to the CFA in respect of the children. Fourteen such referrals had been sent by the Centre to the CFA on the basis of what the assessment team had been observing during their assessment. The social care leader said that it was quite unusual for the Centre to do this.
Following one of referrals, the gardaí had invoked a section 12 emergency care order and subsequently an interim care order had been granted in respect of the children. This had been how the children had initially come into care. One of the assessment team had seen that the children were in distress and had believed that they could not be safely left in the home.
The social care leader said that the recommendation of the parental capacity assessment was that the mother needed supports. When the children had come to the Centre, they had been closed and guarded. However, eventually they had disclosed to the team that they had experienced some physical abuse. The children had presented quite differently – the younger boy was the more volatile of the two children, but the social care leader was equally concerned about the young girl, “she internalised everything and only gave away snippets”. The assessment team had observed the young boy being aggressive towards his sister, but she had internalised this too.
The mother was struggling to meet the children’s basic care needs. In summary, while it may have been due to a lack of awareness and coping skills on the part of the mother, the social care leader said that she had had to put the children at the centre of her assessment and she had had huge concerns about their wellbeing and safety.
The mother’s solicitor asked the social care leader if there had been food in the house. The social care leader replied that there had been food in the house, sometimes it had been prepared, but on other occasions there had not been any substantial amounts of prepared food. However, she agreed that there had been food in the house. She also accepted that the young boy had made some allegations that he had subsequently retracted. The social care leader replied that the boy had remained consistent overall. She said that it was always her hope that, with the right supports in place, the mother could mind the children.
Manager of Assessment and Resource Centre evidence
The manager of the Assessment and Resource Centre said that the children had had struggles in the educational setting. They had missed 80 percent of school attendance two to three years before over a two-year period. The girl had struggled in all aspects of school, particularly maths. The school had been excellent and was providing extra supports to both children. The young girl tended to link with the adults as she had had no friends in her peer group.
There had been serious incidents of poor hygiene with the children and their school uniforms. The school had stepped in to provide changes of clothes for the children, but there had been some bullying of the children as a result of these incidents. The young girl had experienced a roller-coaster of moods. She had needed attention, but had also stayed away from friends. She would complain of headaches and she was detached from what was going on.
The school had been worried about what the children were having for breakfast and provided all of their meals.
The young boy was doing well in terms of literacy. He was receiving intensive supports. The teachers had noticed improvements in his behaviours. He was calmer in the yard. Hygiene for the young boy remained a huge issue. The boy was soiling himself several times a day. This had been a very difficult situation for him in the school setting. The manager said that he believed that the children were benefiting from being in care.
The manager said that at one point the children had begged to be taken from the home. It was very unusual for this to occur. At one point, the assessment team had had to seek the support of the gardaí as there appeared to be unknown males coming to the house to chastise the children. The level of concern of the team was very high. The manager said that the 12-month care orders were required to allow time for the mother to engage in trauma-informed counselling and for the children to also receive therapeutic interventions.
A key element was the need to put in place an effective safety and support network for the mother and children. The cultural background of the mother and children was very closed. Her church was involved but the assessment team had had no clear idea who had been coming to the house. There had been threats to harm the children, by hitting them.
The mother’s solicitor asked the manager if the children had had an educational assessment in their school. The manager replied that no, this had not happened but it had been recommended.
Regarding the children’s absenteeism two or three years before, the solicitor told the court that the mother had been unable to get the children to school as the commute had been too far. She did not have her electric wheelchair at the time and the commute had involved taking two buses.
She also said that the church was very involved in families’ lives in the mother’s east European culture. She said that while the males coming to the house had not been known to the assessment team, they had been known to the mother. The manager said that on the night the gardaí had been called, the young boy had said that he had been hit by men. The solicitor said that the boy had retracted this allegation. However, while the manager accepted that the boy had retracted the allegation, he had been consistent about the unknown males coming to the house as well as the mother’s former partner. The solicitor said that the mother’s former partner had been out of their lives for some time.
Social worker evidence
The CFA social worker told the court that she had been allocated the case since the end of the previous year. There had been 27 referrals in relation to the children to date. The majority of the referrals had related to the basic care of the children. A lot of supports had been put in place to support the mother over the years. Initially she had been referred to community supports to help with budgeting, meal management and so on. However, about two or three years ago, there had been a need for more intensive, child focused supports.
There had been several reviews but unfortunately the additional supports had not brought the children below the thresholds for adequate care. The social worker allocated to the family at the time had been concerned by the mother’s non-compliance with the conditions of a supervision order that had been in place. The mother had struggled to implement the supports that had been required. The mother had agreed to engage with a parental capacity assessment as part of the supervision order.
The social worker’s main concern was the lack of an adequate safety network. She recognised the traditional role of the church in the mother’s culture. She had been introduced to one of the members of the church against whom the boy had made allegations of abuse. She said that the 12-month care order for the children was necessary and proportionate. The mother and children were living within a very closed and secretive environment. It would take time to support the mother to be able to care for her children and for her to be able to recognise red flags such as the men coming to the house and in every other aspect of the children’s lives also.
She agreed that the mother had engaged meaningfully with her and the Social Work Department. A safety network of individuals had been proposed, but the social worker was still concerned that these individuals had been around when the church member had allegedly abused the boy but they had not dealt with this or raised any concerns.
The children had initially been in special emergency accommodation, but were now in separate placements. In the special emergency accommodation, there had been concerns about the young boy assaulting his sister. The social worker said that they were trying to repair the sibling relationship.
The girl was in a residential placement with good therapeutic services in the north of the county. The boy was in a placement in an adjacent county. He was attending a new school. The school was small and had agreed to make every effort to help the boy. The social worker had collected the boy from school the previous week. He had been very positive. However, his soiling was ongoing and they were struggling to get to the bottom of it.
The judge said that this must have been causing him psychological upset. The issue of his soiling needed to be sorted urgently. The social worker said that the boy was now more open about it and had less shame, but it absolutely was very important. It required a holistic multidisciplinary assessment which would need to be overseen by a special clinician. The judge was concerned that organising such an assessment would take a long time and that the issue facing the child was urgent and needed to be done within a shorter time frame.
The social worker said she did not want to do the assessment piecemeal. She said that there might be delays, but accepted that there was an urgency to the situation. It was a complex issue, there were concerns that the boy’s soiling might be due to neurodivergence, or that it might be trauma-related. They did not know and she did not want to misdiagnose the problem.
She said that the young girl was more inward focused. She had only seen her very distressed on one occasion, when she had been told that she would get a new coat but then she did not get the coat. She had had a huge reaction.
The social worker said that the 12-month care order was needed as otherwise they would have to start with the children all over again.
The mother’s solicitor told the court that the parties in the mother’s current network had not seen the alleged physical abuse by the church member against the boy take place.
The social worker said that she had relied on the school’s evidence of issues regarding the children’s dirty clothes and lack of hygiene. The solicitor said that the mother had engaged with her GP late last year in relation to the boy’s soiling and the medication that had been prescribed in that regard. However, the social worker said that the issue of the boy’s soiling had been flagged prior to that engagement.
The social worker agreed that the young girl would do better if she were in a foster placement, but that at that time the CFA did not have any suitable placement.
The social worker said that the GAL had recommended that consideration be given to obtaining Assessment, Consultation & Therapy Services (ACTS) or Area-based Therapeutic Team (ATT) services for the boy. However, the social worker said that ACTS did not provide services to children under 12 years of age and the ATT service did not have the necessary multi-disciplinary services that the boy needed. She said that the GAL had also recommended that a referral for a psychological assessment of the boy be made to a private provider given that the CFA’s own services had long waiting list.
She said that the boy was due to be assessed for ADHD and/or Autistic Spectrum Disorder by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The social worker was very concerned that the boy would be misdiagnosed. She said that all assessments would need to be medically informed, trauma-informed and it should be a holistic multi-disciplinary assessment ideally. This was needed to get to the bottom of his soiling, as this was the most urgent issue, but it was also to assess all of his needs.
GAL evidence
The GAL had provided a very detailed report to the court. She had met with the children’s mother just over one month before. The mother had acknowledged their needs and was now consenting to this application.
The GAL was recommending that the mother would have the benefit of receiving therapy in. her own language. It would be necessary for the mother to go back in time to deal with her own traumas. This needed to be done in her native language. She said that the mother’s health coordinator had identified a woman who could provide counselling to her in her native language. She had spoken to this woman and she was prepared to provide the necessary service. It would be more expensive than the cheaper option which would involve the use of a translator.
Normally, the CFA would be required to seek multiple quotes for such a service. However, to the best of the GAL’s knowledge, this woman appeared to be the only person who could deliver the required therapeutic service in the mother’s own language. The GAL asked the court to issue a direction that the CFA would seek funding for this service, but acknowledged that this might mean putting aside the usual procurement processes. She also acknowledged that it was unusual for the CFA to fund therapy for a parent but she said that it was one of the actions required and it was not unheard of for the CFA to do this.
The young girl needed dental care, which was in train, and a referral to a dietician as she had a tendency to overeat when stressed. The CFA had agreed to make these referrals. She also needed an educational and psychologist assessment. She needed a safe therapeutic place, such as play therapy. Since the GAL’s report had been written, the CFA had made contact with a psychologist. The GAL said that the young girl needed to be more settled in her placement first, but that this needed to be kept on the agenda.
The GAL had spoken with the girl the previous month. She had written a note that she had agreed could be shared. In the note she had said that the granting of the care order would be hard and that she was very sad. She was processing the situation, but it was slow.
The GAL said that the girl was settled and doing well. She was sharing her placement with a number of other children. She had raised a few issues about noise in the placement. The placement was a bit of a mismatch. The other children there had more outwardly obvious needs. However, she was still doing well. It would be better if she were in a family foster placement, but the GAL was aware that this was not possible at the time.
Access between the girl and her mother was positive. There was a clear bond and they were very affectionate with one another. The were friends as much as mother and daughter. It was planned that access would continue and that it was well supported.
The boy’s needs were more evident. He experienced five to seven episodes of soiling per day across all situations. It was hugely significant. The boy did not feel it coming on. The GAL said that it had happened every time she had met him and that it had significant social implications for him.
The therapeutic team had made practical recommendations to help with managing the issue, but the underlying issue had followed him all through his childhood. The medical assessment was not straightforward. There did not seem to be any possible medical cause other than constipation. It was possible that it had underlying psychological causes or it might also be a symptom of neurodivergence. The boy did not seem to be aware of his bodily functions. It might be that it was a sensory issue.
The GAL recommended a specific private therapeutic service. That service had various professionals with a wide range of experiences, as well as trauma-informed therapeutic services. They did not have medical experience, but they did have a wide range of psychological experiences.
The judge was very anxious that relevant therapeutic services would be provided to the boy as quickly as possible. The CFA’s solicitor told the court that the suggested service provider was well known to the CFA and that a referral could be made in parallel with the boy’s needs assessment. The CFA could decide later whether some of the services could be publicly provided. In the interim, the public nurse had been contacted and the boy was being provided with incontinence pads.
The GAL said that the boy had shown a high level of vigilance and had moved around a lot during access. Access had been positive, but the boy had wanted the external protection of the social worker’s presence at the visits. However, the GAL recommended that the access continue.
The boy was positive about school and happy. The children had separate access with their mother. Both were ok with this. The boy had been very aggressive with the girl. Since then they had been separated and the girl did not want to see her brother. However, more recently the girl had begun to recognise that they needed each other. Therapy would be needed to reestablish the siblings’ relationship with each other.
The CFA’s solicitor said that it was the professional view of the social worker that the boy would benefit from a holistic assessment. Her concern was that the boy should not be subjected to multiple assessments. She said that the CFA also needed to consider all options available through the public services.
Judge’s decision
The judge said that the boy’s needs were urgent and they could not wait for the assessment of needs before getting help for his soiling. Having heard all of the evidence, the judge made the care orders for 12 months with the consent of the mother. She said that she had been satisfied that the order was necessary and proportionate.
She directed that the boy would get the multidisciplinary psychological assistance that he needed urgently. This was to be sourced privately if no suitable public service could be obtained within four weeks. She further directed that the mother should receive therapeutic supports in her native language. In relation to the girl, the judge said that she needed to settle in further before engaging in therapeutic supports. An educational psychological assessment of each child needed to be done promptly. If the children’s schools could not provide this, then the CFA was to source a suitable private service provider.
The judge directed access to be at the discretion of the CFA.
At the request of the CFA, she lifted the in camera rule to allow the social worker and the GAL to share their reports for the purposes of therapeutic intervention and for the necessary assessments. The matter was put in for review in four months’ time.