Other waiting-list cases included a child being groomed online, an older child threatened with violence, and a baby under one year possibly exposed to parental drug use.
A two-year-old child found home alone was left months without a full welfare assessment, according to a HIQA Tusla inspection report seen by Kfm.
Inspectors say the toddler’s immediate safety was checked the day of the referral, but the case stayed on a waiting list - one of 779 unallocated files, representing 46 percent of the region’s 1,675 open child protection cases.
The report covered the area of Kildare, Dublin South West and West Wicklow.
Other waiting-list cases included a child being groomed online, an older child threatened with violence, and a baby under one year possibly exposed to parental drug use.
Those cases, according to the HIQA report, were escalated following the inspection and "satisfactory assurances were provided that appropriate actions were being taken to ensure the children’s safety and welfare".
The inspection also revealed 29 children needing state care had no available placements, forcing siblings to move 13 times in two months and sending one child 250 kilometres away for a single-night stay.
HIQA warned the State’s second-largest child protection area - serving more than 108,000 children - cannot meet national targets without urgent staff and funding increases.
HIQA judged three of five national standards “Not Compliant.”
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Children First implementation: Delays in assessments, safety planning, and placement availability left children at risk.
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Statutory obligations: Waiting lists and gaps in safety monitoring breached Tusla’s duties under child protection law.
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Workforce skills and experience: 12 vacant social worker posts and turnover above 10 percent undermined service delivery.
According to the report, carried out in May of this year, "the management team were consistently escalating their need for more staff in order to meet the demand for the service. Information provided for the inspection indicated that there were 12 vacancies for professionally qualified social workers, five vacancies for senior social work practitioners and three team leader vacancies across the service."
It stated how "staff turnover was at 10.74% with 15 staff having left the service in the 12 months prior to the inspection. However 17 new staff had commenced in the CPW service in that same period, therefore the overall gain was two staff."
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