Report slams failure to foster children

CHILDREN under the age of 12 in the care of the Health Service Executive are being housed in residential centres rather than foster homes - in breach of the HSE’s own policies.

A health inspectors’ report has strongly criticised the HSE for failing to implement its own code, which seeks to avoid putting young children into residential care.

The report by the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) claims that plans by the HSE South Western Area, to place under-12s into foster care have lost momentum.

“This is not simply a question of unmet need, it is also unjust that some children have been denied the possibility of family life,” according to the inspectors.

The SSI yesterday published the results of a cluster inspection on nine out of 13 children’s residential centres run by the HSE in south Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, which are home to 43 children including nine under-12s.

Inspectors visited the centres between September 2005 and January 2006, reporting significant difficulties that require urgent and sustained attention.

“Some of those children had remained in residential care for ... years, despite the fact that the objective of their care plans was to secure family placements,” they said.

The inspectors expressed concern that the HSE’s policy on housing under-12s in foster care was “ineffective” and had resulted in them being unsuitably placed for several years.

The HSE claimed it encountered difficulties in finding suitable foster homes, in addition to issues related to children’s previous experience of foster care - explaining why some children were still housed in residential centres.

The SSI said it was particularly concerned that some children were only placed in foster care after a decision to close one such residential home.

“It was difficult to escape the conclusion that foster carers were not found in response to the children’s needs but rather were found in response to the agency’s need,” said the inspectors.

The report found that staff and children were affected by uncertainty over their future, and that, in the case of one centre, the HSE lacked the capacity to manage change in a manner that protected the interests of children.

Inspectors expressed concern about staffing at such centres, including the high number of temporary and agency staff, inadequate supervision levels and a lack of evidence of worker vetting.

They found that a HSE monitoring officer was not notified by centres, as required, of significant events.

In one case, fire safety concerns raised by a monitoring officer in 2003, were still not addressed at the time of the latest inspection. Only two of the 13 centres inspected had fire safety certificates. Four out of the 13 centres did not meet general standards, while only two had up-to-date health and safety audits.

Inspectors reported that general care practices were good with close attention being given to residents’ individual needs.