€300k-a-week bill from private f irm for residential care for 22 youngsters
Tusla is paying Odyssey 40 times more than its foster carers
A PRIVATE company is being paid up to €297,000 a week to provide accommodation for 22 children in residential care, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
Odyssey Social Care is receiving up to €13,500 every week for each child as part of its contract with the State family and child agency Tusla, documents released under Freedom of Information legislation reveal.
According to figures supplied separately from the agency, this is almost twice the average cost of a child in residential care, either privately ‘or in a Tusla equivalent’. And it is more than 40 times higher than the €325 currently paid to foster carers.
The contract with Odyssey Social Care to provide residential care was signed on July 28 following the collapse of Positive Care Ireland, previously one of the country’s largest providers of residential care for teenagers.
However, the contract appears to contradict commitments made by Tusla earlier this year to reduce its use of private residential care to 40% of its services over the next three years.
On May 10, Tusla chief Bernard Gloster told the Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth that the agency’s dependency on private providers was a cause for concern.
He told legislators: ‘Our level of dependency rather than the existence of private provision is a problem. At present we operate at a ratio of approximately public-private 40/60.’
Mr Gloster said the board of Tusla had approved a plan for residential care, under which ‘we aim to address the dependency to an achievable rather than aspirational level and we have targeted a 50/50 split in three years with desired reversal of the 40/60 split in five years’.
He added this target will be achieved ‘through increasing public provision as distinct from any intentional erosion of existing private provision’.
According to figures supplied by Tusla, as of July this year there were 5,826 children in care, of which 250 were in private residential care facilities.
Tusla also said it provides ‘care in residential or quasi-residential settings to approximately 600 people’.
A spokesperson said: ‘There are also some 550 private company-provided foster carers while the majority of children in foster care are with public [Tusla] carers or relatives.’
Odyssey Social Care was set up by Broadlake Capital on May 24 after meetings between Tusla officials and Positive Care Ireland.
These meetings came after Positive Care Ireland previously informed Tusla it would be unable to continue its services if it was not approved for a new contract. It was previously reported Positive Care Ireland stopped receiving new referrals from Tusla due to concerns about its quality of care.
Documents obtained under Fredom of Information legislation (FOI) show concerns were raised in a meeting in June about the lack of residential care experience of directors of Odyssey Social Care.
Social care workers and foster carers have previously raised concerns about a lack of oversight of private providers who are not currently independently inspected by the regulator, Hiqa. Tusla spent more than €150m on private residential care last year. The charity EPIC [Empowering People in Care] said this amounted to 76% of the agency’s child residential services. It also said Tusla’s reliance on private providers had increased by 131% between 2015 and 2021.
One foster carer, who did not wish to be identified, said there is growing frustration at Tusla’s continuing reliance on private residential care, and a lack of transparency from the State agency.
They told the MoS: ‘A lot of the private agency carers will tell you that they don’t know who the owner is. And they don’t have a magic wand. We know largely the children aren’t treated any differently, but it is costing the State more via Tusla to support the child through private agencies.’
Tusla foster carers receive an allowance of €325 a week for children under the age of 12 and €352 for older children. The allowance has been raised once since it was set in 2001.
The foster carer also raised concerns about the quality of children’s experiences in private residential care.
‘The most experienced people with trauma are the foster carers, because you’re living it. You’ve trained in it, you’ve read into it and you’ll know every answer. But you won’t have the “doctor” in front of your name or the letters after your name. So they’re put into private residential care and that experience isn’t there.’
EPIC chief executive Marissa Ryan called on Tusla to increase the number of publicly owned residential care homes.
Ms Ryan told the MoS: ‘Insufficient public investment over the years has resulted in an overreliance on privately operated children’s residential services, with a majority of services now run by private companies.
‘The aim to reduce dependency on private providers by 2025 will require continued investment in identifying, securing and establishing appropriate accommodation for children in care by Tusla.’
In response to queries from the MoS, Tusla said it could not comment on individual providers. But a spokesman said it was confident that ‘existing trained, experienced staff continue to provide the care for the children/young people’.
The State agency admitted reducing its reliance on private care providers is challenging due to rising number of ‘complex cases’ and an increasing number of children seeking international protection.
When asked about the criteria for putting children in private residential
‘Our level of dependency is a problem’
‘Private care is a feature of most social services’
care, the spokesman said: ‘Private care is a feature of most social service areas, including nursing homes, home help services, and disability services, and therefore it is not unusual to see it in alternative care for children who can’t live at home. There are a number of reasons why a young person may be admitted to residential care, and they are quite varied. These include an inability to access a foster care placement, a young person may have experienced foster care placement disruption(s), or residential care may be deemed the most appropriate alternative care setting for them.
‘Many young people have positive experiences of residential care, where the setting nurtures their potential to overcome adversity and supports them to achieve better outcomes and transition to an independent life. For others, the trauma they have experienced can lead to behavioural issues, which limits their ability to engage with staff in the services. In these instances, professionals are challenged to establish a therapeutic relationship with the young person to best support them in their transition to adult life.’
Odyssey Social Care and Broadlake Capital did not respond to requests for comment.