Stark rise in number of children under 12 living in children’s homes

Children as young as three are living in children’s homes in Ireland, amid a shortage of foster families. 

And the number of young children in residential care is increasing. 

At Tusla’s most recent count, there were 82 children under 12 years old living in registered children’s homes – up substantially from 56 in 2021.

Nine more children were in unregistered residential placements, the youngest of whom was just eight years old, show figures released under the Freedom of Information Act. 

While the number of young children in residential care has risen, the overall number of kids in care has held roughly steady. At the end of 2025, there were 5,879 children in care, while in 2021, there were 5,862. 

“It is a concerning trend that increasing numbers of children under 12 are being accommodated in residential care,” says Wayne Stanley, CEO of Empowering People in Care (EPIC). 

Experts say children are better off in foster families, where possible.

Two recent inspection reports for homes for young children found high turnover of managers, including, in one case, no manager or deputy manager for a time.  

“There was a lack of experience and competencies amongst the staff team who were responsible for providing safe and effective care and support to each of the four young children living in the centre,” it says. 

At another home, which also had high turnover of managers, the staff didn’t consistently follow the policy to manage the children’s behaviour. 

“Inspectors found that there was an over reliance on the Gardaí to manage one child’s behaviour which in the inspectors’ view was an inappropriate response given the age of the child,” says the report. 

Tusla, the Department of Children, and the two private operators that run the homes have not yet responded to queries sent earlier this week. 

A recent report by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office sounded the alarm around the suitability of these kinds of placements.

“Children can be placed at further risk in private settings due to high staff turnover, which could lead to a lack of proper oversight and inappropriate supports and services,” it said. 

Proposed solutions put forward by Tara Ćirić, a PhD researcher at Maynooth University, include more investment in foster carers and kinship carers, which are much cheaper than residential care. 

Providing state-run facilities to improve staff retention, investing in salaries and specialist training for care home staff, and independent regulation of all children’s homes would also help, say Ćirić and Stanley.

Risk of high staff turnover

Tusla clocked in its strategic plan for 2022 to 2025 that “an increasing number of children younger than 12 years are being admitted”.

That was when there were 56 kids in that age group in children’s homes. That number has since increased by 62.5 percent.

Of the 91 children under 12 in residential care today, 73 are in privately run children's homes, only 13 are accommodated in homes run by Tusla, and 5 are housed by charities. 

Tusla publishes inspection reports for registered children’s homes run by private companies and charities on its website. 

In an October 2025 report for a home run by Ann’s Children’s Care Ireland, inspectors found a very high level of managerial staff turnover within the home and the organisation. 

From the time the centre opened in February 2025, to when it was inspected in July 2025, there were three changes in the named centre manager. 

At one stage during those months, there was no manager or deputy manager for the home so the agency’s compliance manager and the manager of another centre were supporting the inexperienced staff team, it says. 

“There was an overall lack of leadership, management and governance arrangements,” it says. 

No senior manager was overseeing the home because the regional manager had also been off since the centre opened, says the report. 

“The agency’s director of quality and compliance who took on the role initially in an acting capacity named to the inspectors that they did not possess the experience required of the role,” it says. 

The staff lacked the competencies and experience to provide safe and effective care and support to each of the four young children living in the centre, it says. 

Risk management issues at the home were reflected in other homes run by the same company, it says. 

“Actions relating to risk management had been consistently identified by ACIMS [Tusla’s Alternative Care Inspection and Monitoring Service] inspectors since the agency commenced operating children’s residential centres in 2024,” says the report. 

The report did say that a suitably qualified manager was in post in the home at the time of the inspection. 

Ann’s Children’s Care Ireland didn’t respond before publication to queries about this sent to two email addresses for human resources sent on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, an October 2025 inspection report for a facility run by  Odyssey Social Care, registered to house four children aged between 7 and 11, found that there was evidence of good use of rewards for positive behaviour.

“This was evident to the inspectors who observed the care team responding to the children's needs and interacting with them in a warm and caring manner,” it says. 

However, there was a very high turnover of managers at the centre, and some staff also lacked experience, it said. 

“There had been four managers in post in the three months prior to the inspection which resulted in a lack of consistent guidance to the team, many of whom had limited experience in managing challenging behaviours,” says the report. 

Inspectors found that there was an over reliance on the Gardaí to manage one child’s behaviour, that was an inappropriate response given the age of the child, it says.

“In a number of cases a more proactive approach or earlier interventions outlined in policies and behaviour support plans may have led to a de-escalation of behaviours,” says the report. 

Odyssey Social Care has not yet responded to queries about this inspection report, sent Tuesday evening.

There was no agreement between the centre manager and the social worker as to whether physical restraint should be used on one child, says the report. 

“When behaviours of concern emerged, the centre management had been proactive in making efforts to arrange strategy meetings with all social workers to discuss the collective risks and group dynamics,” says the report, “but this had not always been successful due to the unavailability of some social work departments.”

Tusla has not yet responded to queries about whether young children living in residential settings should be prioritised for access to a social worker. 

Foster care and kinship care

“We know that secure and loving foster care homes provide positive outcomes for children in care,” says Stanley of EPIC. 

They are the best solution if the child cannot remain living with their own family, he says. 

“Where there are complex needs, the optimal solution is specialised foster placements, with sufficient supports and respite in place to prevent placement breakdowns,” he says. 

If the children cannot be accommodated in foster families, or if the placement breaks down, they should be accommodated in care homes that are run by Tusla and inspected by HIQA, he says. 

If a residential placement is needed for a child under 12 it should be under constant review with a view to returning that child to living in a family setting, he says. 

Another positive solution is more investment in kinship care for children, says Tara Ćirić, a PhD researcher at Maynooth University, referring to an arrangement when a child or young person is cared for by a relative or family friend. 

To encourage more of these arrangements, the Irish government should work with kinship carers and advocacy groups to develop a rights-based policy framework for kinship care, she says. 

Affording these children “access to the same supports and protection as those in foster care”, could help reduce the strain on other types of placements and is in the best interest of the child, she says.

Specialist residential care

Ćirić, the PhD researcher, who previously worked as an educator in children's homes in Canada, says that in that country, there are therapeutic care settings for traumatised children under 12. 

Staff have specialist qualifications, she says. They might hold a master’s degree in a relevant discipline like psychology, and be trained to use trauma-informed methods to assist young children to learn to process emotions. 

“Children in those residential care systems would be children who experienced a massive amount of trauma,” she says, “and they need additional help.”

Ćirić says that as far as she is aware, there are no specialist settings in Ireland for young children with serious trauma. “I don’t think we have a system that can respond in that way,” she says. “Calling the Gardaí is not a trauma-informed response.”

There used to be high-support homes in Ireland that accepted young children, according to a HIQA report from 2007, which says that there were five children under 12 in those homes, as well as one in secure care. 

Reversing privatisation

Ćirić says that to reduce the high staff turnover seen in so many care homes, the state needs to invest in publicly run homes that pay social-care workers a rate that reflects the “significant physical, emotional and legal implications of their work”. 

“All of the international and national evidence shows that privatisation leads to worse outcomes for children in care, including putting them in significant risk of harm,” she says. 

The report by the Ombudsman for Children’s Office also called on the Irish state to increase investment in publicly run residential care and to reduce the reliance on private providers.

That is Tusla’s intention according to its last strategic plan, but the proportion of homes run by private companies grew instead throughout the duration of that plan. Tusla figures from September last year indicated that around 77 per cent of all children’s homes were privately-run. 

The Department of Children didn’t respond in time for publication to a query as to why the state doesn’t run more children’s homes directly, especially for young children, and whether providing homes through the public system would assist with staff retention. 

The government should also consider a method to cap the profits that companies can make in this sector in line with proposals in the UK, said the Ombudsman in his report. 

A recent government report in the UK found that the cost of private children’s homes is unsustainable, having doubled in the last five years, with the largest companies making an average profit margin of 22.6 percent.

Better regulation?

Stanley and Ćirić both called on the state to find solutions for under 12s that don’t include unregulated placements. 

As well as that, the government should mandate HIQA to inspect all children’s homes, says Stanley, to ensure standards are the same in all homes. 

HIQA currently has responsibility for inspecting Tusla-run children’s homes and homes for children with disabilities. Tusla inspects privately run and charity-run children’s homes itself. 

“The transfer of the registration and inspection of all children’s residential centres to HIQA has been recommended by The Ombudsman for Children's Office and was a Government Commitment from the Ryan Report Recommendations,” says Stanley. 

But it has never happened, he said. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Children previously said that: “A robust regulatory framework exists for residential care services for children.”