Internal Tusla notes reveal cases of scabies and bed bugs, and risk of self-harm in unregulated emergency accommodation
Vulnerable children in State care living in overcrowded emergency accommodation were found to have contracted scabies and been sleeping in rooms with bed bugs, internal documents show.
Most young people are sharing bedrooms – some rooms have double beds. This posed a risk of peer-on-peer abuse taking place, where one young person might abuse another John Maguire, Tusla’s acting head of practice assurance, said inspections of the emergency accommodation had thrown up a number of “systemic issues”, which posed potential risks.
However, a spokeswoman for Tusla said “there can be circumstances where young people can share a bedroom” in emergency accommodation, but they would have individual beds. An internal October 10th, 2023 briefing said a fifth of children in SEAs who were not unaccompanied minors had been put into emergency accommodation after a previous placement in a regulated group care home had broken down.
Emails show a social worker reported concerns internally about another company, Clarion Healthcare, which is one of the main providers of emergency accommodation. Correspondence shows Mr Ademola shut down one placement run by the company in response to a “recent incident”. The company was committed to “providing quality accommodation and staffing” to young people in its care, he wrote.
The girls living in the accommodation indicated they “hated” the placement, it said. “We genuinely have concerns for the placed in the care of this service and believe it requires in-depth investigation,” the complaint stated.
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