The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an inspection report on the child protection and welfare service operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in the Cavan Monaghan service area. The inspection focused on the implementation of Tusla’s Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure (CASP), which came into operation in June 2022. 

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Section 8(1)(c) of the Health Act 2007 to monitor the quality of services provided by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) to protect children and promote their welfare. HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children and advises the Minister and Tusla.

In order to meet its statutory obligations, Tusla must carry out an assessment of allegations of child abuse in line with fair procedures. This substantiation assessment examines evidence and decides if an allegation is founded or unfounded on the balance of probabilities. This is not a criminal investigation. If the allegation is founded, a determination is made that the person who is the subject of the abuse allegations poses a potential risk to a child or children. Tusla calls its national standardised process the ‘Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure’ (CASP). 

HIQA conducted a focused inspection of Tusla’s Child Abuse Substantiation Procedure in the Cavan Monaghan service area between 25 September and 28 September 2023. Of the five standards assessed, the service was found to be compliant with two standards and substantially compliant with three standards.



Overall, the service area had clearly defined governance and management systems in place, with clear lines of authority and accountability to protect and safeguard children through the CASP. The service had strong leadership that was committed to integrating the CASP into the area’s child protection and welfare service. Service managers actively encouraged a culture of reflective practice, learning and continuous improvement. Risk, at an individual and systems level, was appropriately identified and managed. 

While there was no waitlist for the CASP service and all open CASP cases had an allocated social worker, in the 15-month period since the CASP came into operation, only one case had progressed fully though all stages of the CASP to reach a conclusion. A review of the adherence to CASP timelines found that they were not consistently met and that there were significant delays in the progression of cases through this process. Such delays did not impact on the safeguarding of children who were already identified. However, they did impact on Tusla’s ability to act in a timely way when it came to progressing safeguarding actions for children who had not been identified and who may have been at risk. In addition, the procedure did not fully address the findings of the HIQA 2018 investigation.

CASP staff clearly recognised their responsibility with regard to the safeguarding of children and were child centred and trauma informed in their approach to progressing cases, while also ensuring that fair procedures and due process were afforded to the child or adult against whom the allegation had been made. However, in some cases, communication was delayed and the timelines set out in the CASP were long, and as a result the procedure was not child centred. In addition, leaflets to explain the CASP process were not child friendly or easy to understand, there was no CASP leaflet for parents and the leaflets were only available in English on the Tusla website. 

Both the CASP and Tusla’s national policy regarding notifying the National Vetting Bureau of concerns about adults were not aligned with the National Vetting Bureau Act (2012). However, this service area had put measures in place to ensure it was fulfilling its obligations under the Act.

Clear child protection procedures and systems were in place which ensured that effective safeguarding for children was central to cases being worked through the CASP and that all child protection concerns were assessed in line with Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017). The vulnerability, safety, welfare and individual needs of all children were considered and supported by the CASP team. In the absence of national guidance within the CASP, the local area had developed a practice guidance to support staff around this which was formalised in August 2023. The CASP team equally supported and considered the needs of both children who had disclosed abuse and children against whom an allegation had been made. 

Improvement in the area of staff supervision was required to ensure that cases were discussed regularly, as some cases had not been discussed within supervision for periods of over six months. The inputting of case information and timely management sign-off on the Tusla Case Management System needed to be strengthened to ensure that the information held on children and adults’ files and data used for reporting and auditing purposes was accurate. 

The inspection report and compliance plan can be found at www.hiqa.ie.