<p>
	RT&Eacute; Investigates found a case where despite the existence of &quot;credible&quot;&nbsp;allegations of sexual abuse, Tusla fought to keep a child in a foster placement where the abuse was alleged to have occurred and without removing the risk itself.</p>
<p>
	It comes as the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children called for immediate action to improve child protection, after a report called for a complete cultural change in the system.</p>
<p>
	In 2011 a young boy living in voluntary foster care, named &#39;Mark&#39;, told his birth mother he had been inappropriately touched by another&nbsp;male foster child twice his age. This child was also living with the same foster family.</p>
<p>
	The mother of &#39;Mark&#39;, &#39;Susan&#39; said that she was distressed when told about the alleged abuse by her son, and disclosed this to the foster mother.</p>
<p>
	She said: &quot;Obviously I was shocked ... he was quite distressed about it so when the foster mother came to pick him up I spoke to her about what my son had disclosed to me.&quot;</p>
<p>
	&#39;Susan&#39; discovered &#39;Mark&#39; had made a similar allegation to his foster parent five weeks earlier but it had not been reported to the Health Service Executive.</p>
<p>
	She asked to have &#39;Mark&#39; moved from the foster placement while an investigation took place, but this did not happen.</p>
<p>
	Instead a safety plan was put in place by the HSE, which consisted of little more than an instruction to the foster parents that the two boys, who had been sharing a bedroom, &quot;should have separate bedrooms and that the [foster] carers should supervise&quot; them closely.</p>
<p>
	Two months later, the HSE referred &#39;Mark&#39; for assessment by child sexual abuse experts.</p>
<p>
	The experts concluded that &#39;Mark&#39; gave &quot;a credible account of experiencing inappropriate sexual behaviour by his foster sibling&quot;.</p>
<p>
	But while &#39;Mark&#39; was assessed, it appears from case notes that his foster sibling was not.</p>
<p>
	Kieran McGrath, a child welfare consultant, told RT&Eacute; Investigates that a proper evaluation of the older child was missing.</p>
<p>
	He said: &quot;What was missing was a proper evaluation of the older young person and what his potential was to re-abuse.</p>
<p>
	&quot;A much more adequate response would have been to take those steps - to assess the treatment needs of the victim child and also to look at a proper assessment of the older young person in terms of his needs and in particular the risk he might pose to someone else.&quot;</p>
<p>
	Over the following months, &#39;Mark&#39; displayed sexualised behaviour and &#39;Susan&#39; repeatedly reported this to the social work department.</p>
<p>
	&#39;Susan&#39; believed her concerns were not being taken seriously by social workers so she reported the matter to garda&iacute; asking them to investigate.</p>
<p>
	Fact cases notes seen by RT&Eacute; Investigates shows that garda&iacute; were &quot;...quite irate...&quot; at the management of &#39;Mark&#39;s&#39; case by the HSE social work department.</p>
<p>
	The notes stated that garda&iacute;: &quot;Would have a different view of child sexual abuse...&quot;</p>
<p>
	The HSE decided to leave &#39;Mark&#39; in the foster home despite his birth mother&#39;s concerns.</p>
<p>
	Almost three years later, &#39;Mark&#39; made a second allegation, this time to a Tusla staff member that he was being punched by the same older foster child and by an adult son of the foster family.</p>
<p>
	The foster parents were again advised by the social work department to &quot;increase supervision&quot; of the boys and &#39;Susan&#39; was informed about the allegation.</p>
<p>
	&#39;Susan&#39; said: &quot;I was shocked and upset. I left the building and I just cried. I felt so guilty because I had asked for the social work department&#39;s help and instead of helping, my son was not protected in my view.&quot;</p>
<p>
	In late 2015 Tusla applied to the courts for a full care order for &#39;Mark&#39;.</p>
<p>
	As part of the court process &#39;Susan&#39; was required to produce two psychiatric assessment reports on the state of her mental health, to which she agreed.</p>
<p>
	But what &#39;Susan&#39; did not understand was that she would be personally billed by her doctor for the reports, &euro;500 for the first report and &euro;300 for the second one.</p>
<p>
	On one occasion she was forced to take out a loan from her credit union to cover the cost.</p>
<p>
	Mr McGrath said: &quot;This is a matter initiated by the State, it&#39;s meeting the State&#39;s needs using an employee of the State and then somehow a private bill is sent to someone who&#39;s generally speaking in no position to pay it so that, I have never come across a circumstance like that before, it&#39;s to my mind completely strange and inappropriate.&quot;</p>
<p>
	In an initial statement to RT&Eacute;, Tusla said it &quot;does not require individuals to undertake psychiatric assessments at their own expense.&quot;</p>
<p>
	However when asked by RT&Eacute; Investigates why &#39;Susan&#39; ended up paying her doctor&#39;s bills, a spokesperson for Tusla said they &quot;cannot comment on individual cases.&quot;</p>
<p>
	Last year the court ruled that &#39;Mark&#39; will stay in care until the age of 18.</p>
<p>
	He continues to live with the same foster family to the present day, along with the older child alleged to have previously abused him.</p>
<p>
	In its statement, Tusla said it &quot;carries out complete assessments of all allegations it receives of abuse of children&hellip;&quot; and all care planning &quot;&hellip;is done on the basis of an individual child&#39;s needs and best interests, taking his/her views into account&hellip;&quot;.</p>
<p>
	&#39;Mark&#39;&nbsp;and &#39;Susan&#39;&nbsp;are not the actual names of the foster child and his mother</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by the Irish Times on the 30th May 2017)</p>
<p>
	<a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2017/0529/878821-tusla-controversy/">https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2017/0529/878821-tusla-controversy/</a></p>
