Six children died while under HSE West care in 2012

Six children who were being monitored or cared for by the HSE West died last year.

They were among 23 deaths and one serious incident nationally that were notified to the HSE’s National Review Panel for Serious Incidents & Child Deaths, an independently chaired body set up in 2010.

Of the six in the west region, two were boys and four were girls, though no indication has been given of the circumstances of their deaths or whether they were in full-time care or living with their families.

The HSE West regional director for children and family services, John Smyth, revealed that of those deaths nationally, 18 were children living with their own families but known to the child protection services.

A Regional Health Forum West meeting was told that nationally, three children were in care and two were in after care when they died. Nine died by suicide, two lost their lives in road traffic accidents, four died in other accidents and seven by natural causes. One child was the victim of a homicide.

Mr Smyth said this year inspections by HIQA (Health Information and Quality Authority) had been introduced to child protection services as well as the continued inspection of fostering services.

The results of these inspections would be used to improve services, he said.

In 2011, 15 deaths were reported and in 2010 there were 22 deaths reported. The cases involve children in the care of the HSE, children known to protection services and young adults between 18 and 21 years of age.

Since March 2010, the HSE has been required to notify HIQA of such cases involving children in care, such as foster care or a residential unit, or in detention at the time of their death.

Labour Councillor Shaun Cunniffe, who submitted the question to the HSE management, said the numbers seemed “shockingly high”.

“Do social workers work office hours, do these deaths occur at weekends...There seems to be an acceptance of it. God, how many more kids out there are just hanging on?”

The hospital group regional director of performance and integration, Gerry O’Neill, agreed that the figures were very stark. But he pointed out that in total three of the children who died were in full-time care.

“Most of the children were with their families. The fact is it becomes our issue because there was contact with the HSE. Some of these kids had accidents, there have been suicides,” he stated.

HSE West could not give a breakdown of how many of the children who died in the West Region were in fulltime care and how many were with their families “in order to maintain the confidentiality of the children and families involved”.