Staff gave fake references at children's care home facility as RTÉ probe is 'hard to watch'

Forged references were provided for staff at unregulated children’s care homes, according to an internal report prepared for Ireland's Child & Family Agency, Tusla.

The details feature in an RTÉ Investigates documentary, Inside the Care System, being broadcast tonight on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

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Rarely does the public hear from the young people who have experienced a care system under increasing pressure, from staff shortages to mounting condemnation from the judiciary over its failure to meet its lawful obligations to protect children in care.

The disclosures of forged references are documented in emails obtained by RTÉ Investigates between Tusla and the biggest provider of Special Emergency Arrangement care homes, Baig & Mirza Health Services Ltd ,trading as Kare Plus Dublin South. It is a separate company to Kare Plus Ireland, it trades under a franchise agreement.

Special Emergency Arrangements or SEAs are unregulated and unregistered privately run facilities and can operate out of rented apartments, hotels and B&Bs. They cannot be inspected by the regulatory authorities such as HIQA, but are state funded from Tusla’s budget.

Tusla began its enquiries into the forgeries in April last year, according to copies of emails which have been obtained by RTÉ Investigates under Freedom of Information.

In May Tusla received a detailed report on the forgeries, entitled “Internal Report: Discovery and Investigation of Employee Fraud.” The report concluded this case involved a “serious employee fraud which involves collusion, forgery, misusing and compromising company’s staff sensitive and confidential information”.

Baig & Mirza Health Services Ltd ,trading as Kare Plus Dublin South, has been Ireland’s biggest provider of Special Emergency Arrangement children’s care homes, receiving €47 million for these services over the past three years.

On average, these privately-run homes cost Tusla €14,400 per child, per week. This contrasts with the weekly allowance given to fostering arrangements of €420 per child, per week.

When fostering placements break down or in cases of emergency admissions to care, some children are placed in SEA care homes. Experts say they are often the children who need the most support, but some find themselves in the least suitable care facilities.

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Stories of children living in Special Emergency Arrangements feature in tonight’s RTÉ Investigates programme.

Aaron was moved into care at the age of 9 years old. He says he was placed in 20 different care settings, mostly Special Emergency Arrangements that were operating out hotel rooms. “I was living in hotels for a whole year, I was getting junk food,” said Aaron. “It was lonely and depressing, going from one hotel room, to the next. All my life I've been moving.”

Aaron left care without even a junior cert. He says he was advised by Tusla that he could live in a hostel but fearful of this arrangement, he opted instead to couch surf. He later ended up living on the streets in Dublin and spent some time in a psychiatric unit.

Other young people interviewed by RTÉ Investigates described a care system in chaos. They recounted a recurring theme of being moved around a care system, from one home to the next, without any certainty or security.

Olivia, described how she felt like an “Amazon parcel.”

Jess has few personal items left to associate with her childhood, “I have little to no memories or like, belongings because I've moved so much.”

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Another young person RTÉ Investigates spoke with went through 11 different placements during her time in care and said she spent years trying to be ‘perfect’ just so she could have some stability. “It's almost like you were trying to paint yourself as this perfect child just so that you could stay there, because it's like you wouldn't want to be moving around all the time.”

“The children in SEAs are being failed by the State,” says former Judge Dermot Simms, who presided over the family law courts for many years. He tried to raise the alarm about “an unprecedented crisis” in the care system in a letter delivered to four Ministers and three Government agencies before he retired in 2023.

When asked about the current situation with the care system overseen by Tusla after watching some of RTÉ’s footage, he told tonight’s programme:

“I think it has got worse. The children in SEAs are being failed by the State because they are not being properly cared for in a properly resourced and regulated environment."

"We've created the agency [Tusla] where the Government can say, well, that's the responsibility of that organisation, and so we leave them to it. And then when the Child and Family Agency has no further resource, it's outsourcing, it's outsourcing to unregulated placements."

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has told RTÉ that the experiences of young people in tonight's documentary are not acceptable and that they have "publicly communicated our placement capacity challenges...in the context of increased demand for services."

Tusla said in a response to the forged references: “This matter was reported to An Garda Síochána by the provider in question, and the provider would be best placed to answer queries in relation to this.”

It is believed the forgeries involved a fake stamp used by an employee of Kare Plus Dublin South for workers in another Special Emergency Arrangements provider. RTÉ Investigates understand the employee was suspended by Kare Plus Dublin South.

A spokesperson for Kare Plus Dublin South told RTÉ Investigates:

“Kare Plus Dublin South confirms that there is an ongoing Garda investigation into this matter. These forgeries were produced by former rogue employees acting entirely outside the scope of their employment and without the knowledge, consent, or authority of Kare Plus Dublin South or its directors.

“The falsified documents were subsequently submitted to Tusla by a completely separate and unrelated company.”

Freda McKittrick is a Guardian Ad Litem, a court-appointed professional who represents the voice of the child in care cases. She told RTÉ Investigates that the stories of the young people featured in tonight’s documentary should serve as a wakeup call for Tusla and the Government.

“It's hard to watch, but I'm glad it's out there,” she said. “This story has to be told.”

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Tonight's documentary is by RTÉ Investigates Reporter Barry O’Kelly and Producer/Director Lydia Murphy.

Watch RTÉ Investigates: Inside the Care System tonight at 9:35 on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.