Children placed in unfit foster families
The findings, which come just a month after a damning report into 196 deaths of children in care over the past decade, are revealed in four highly critical HSE internal audit investigations.
The near 100 pages of in-depth reports, obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal a litany of serious problems in Dublin, Wicklow, and across the Midlands.
Among the findings, which focus on the years 2008-2011 and were completed last year but only made available yesterday, are:
* Children in Laois-Offaly were placed with an “unsuitable and unapproved” foster carer who had unspecified, serious criminal convictions, a “long history” of admittance to HSE services, and was previously rejected as a foster carer.
The person, who was a relative of the children, was allowed to care for them after a “temporary approval” letter — which was not signed by either the principal social worker or the child care manager — was completed.
* In one foster care family “there were concerns over alcohol abuse by both of the foster carers”. A significant number of “incidents of alcohol abuse were reported and it was decided that no further placements should be made with the foster care family”.
* Another carer had a child placed with them by the HSE despite concerns over the person’s standards by the agency where the individual had previously worked.
* Some carers were looking after foster children for more than four months before Garda vetting.
* Despite National Standards for Foster Care from 2003 stating that all placements must be reviewed after one year and undergo Garda re-checks every three years, the internal audits said “this does not happen unless there is some issue with the foster care” or “something goes wrong”.
* The HSE’s internal audit’s “overarching recommendation” is for all foster care placements in Laois-Offaly to be re-examined.
* And a failure to ensure that all foster family members aged over 18 undergo Garda checks “undermines” safety protocols in Dublin, Wicklow, Longford, and Westmeath.
The major concerns were highlighted before promises last month that the Government is doing all it can to ensure that vulnerable children in the State’s care will be protected.
In addition to the main service findings, a number of significant foster carer payment overspends have also been identified, as well as serious data protection problems involving children’s records.
At the time of the audits, three computers in one area’s childcare manager’s office had no passwords or encryption codes.
In other areas, staff told the auditors their passwords had never been changed.
The reports also found that a significant number of foster carers do not undergo training, despite this being a requirement of the 2003 safety standards.
In addition, a large number of foster carer overpayments were recorded, with a sample check of files from Sept 2008 to Apr 2010 in Laois-Offaly finding a €78,887 overpayment which was not returned.
In a series of official responses to the specific concerns, published in full at www.irishexaminer.com, local health service management accepted the problems and said they were working to address the concerns.
Among the reasons given for the failures were that certain steps were “resource dependent” and others related to protocols already in place which had not been fully implemented.
Read Dublin West report here
Read Dublin South East report here
Read Longford/Westmeath report here
Read Laois/Offaly report here
