More than 60 children in State care in Kilkenny have no social worker

Sixty-three children living locally in the care of the state have not been allocated a social worker.

This represents one in every five children in Kilkenny who require assistance from the Family and Child agency Tusla, going without a dedicated social worker.

The Kilkenny/Carlow/South Tipperary Tusla region has the second highest proportion of children in state care, living without a dedicated social worked – out of the 18 Tusla regions in the state.

These stunning figures were revealed in the latest National Performance and Activity report from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency for November 2019.

The report reveals the South East as a whole is a black hole when it comes to child social workers with the Wexford/ Waterford region performing poorly on the report also, with 51 children in care waiting to be allocated a social worker.

Nationally, 495 children have not been allocated a social worker out of the 5,971 children in state care.

There are 346 children in the Kilkenny/Carlow/South Tipperary region currently in state care

Tusla say some of these cases of children without social workers are being dealt with on an “active” or a “duty” system. This means that there are actions being undertaken by a dedicated duty team or rotating social workers on a duty roster to progress the protection and welfare of the child.