Éanna O’ Brien

BA Hons Social Care, M.Sc. Health Service Management

Children and Young People in Care

Éanna was Tusla’s first National Director for Children’s Residential Services.  As National Director, Éanna was responsible for drawing children’s residential centres from all sectors into a single, robust system of governance, while also line managing the National Special Care Service, more than a thousand staff, and a budget of over €150m.  Some of Éanna’s additional responsibilities are listed below: 

• Éanna represented Tusla on the HSE’s National Implementation Task Force on the Safety on Vulnerable People in Residential Disability Services (Post-Aras Attracta) 

• Éanna led Tusla’s delegation on the matter of Working Time Directive Implementation in meetings with the European Commission in Brussels.

• Éanna led Tulsa’s delegation on the development of the Joint Protocol for Interagency Collaboration with the HSE.

• Éanna contributed to Case Law relating to the role of HSE Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists (CAHMS) with Children and Young People in Tusla’s Special Care Services. 

Children, Young People and Adults with Disability

In January 2017, Éanna established a company that provided consultancy to the residential sector and developed bespoke services designed to prevent the unnecessary placement of vulnerable children and young people in residential care, supporting them at home and in foster care. As part of that consultancy service, in April 2019, he accepted an Interim Chief Executive Officer role within an organisation providing residential services to children, young people, and adults with disability, and to those in Tusla’s care. 

Working through COVID, it took almost three years to realise that organisation’s ambition and to consistently achieve more than 80% full compliance with national standards and regulations as determined by HIQA – placing the organisation 5th of 60 in respect of adult disability services nationally in 2022, and 2nd of 12 providing disability services for children and young people.  Within the same timeframe, the organisation tendered for and became one of only three providers nationally to be registered as an ‘Enhanced Provider’ by Tusla.

Current Focus

Throughout his career, Éanna has worked to distil the residential task and its management - developing an extensive range of procedures, systems, and tools that have repeatedly been shown to generate the compassionate, governance-focussed, technically proficient care the vulnerable children, young people and adults who have been placed in residential care deserve.

Now committed to achieving Care Squared’s objectives, Éanna is driven to provide the services described in this website that we know from experience can benefit any organisation that wants to improve the quality of care it provides.