Children in care ‘denied chance of family life’

CHILDREN in care are subject to crisis management rather than long-term planning for their needs, a highly critical report has found.

The report by the Social Services Inspectorate reveals that children are being denied the chance to live with foster families despite state policy that stresses the importance of family settings over residential units.

The findings show that one in four of the youngest children, aged 12 and under, who were in residential care should not have been there but the inspectorate said social workers told them that there were no other available options.

Children were also found to be kept too long in care without enough consideration being given to rejoining their own families or moving on to a foster family if one came available.

“This is not acceptable,” the report states.

Other criticisms include a majority of the children did not have a long-term care plan or had a plan that was rarely, if ever, reviewed. The report says: “Inspectors found that care plans reflected the situation as it was the time of admission [to State care].... they did not take account of significant life events or the views of the children.”

Almost half this age group had already experienced at least four previous placements, in a variety of care settings, sometimes including foster care, which the inspectorate said indicated that “previous plans for those children had failed”.

Children were found to be experiencing a high turnover in the social workers assigned to their cases and to have too little contact with siblings, while those from ethnic backgrounds had even more limited care options available to them than the average child.

The inspectorate, whose findings were published yesterday, concluded that “care planning was more often determined by crisis management rather than long-term planning for what best met the needs of the child”.

Chief inspector Dr Marion Witton said it was clear that the placement of the under-12s did not reflect the Department of Health and Children’s own policy that such children should be homed with families.

She said the department should re-issue a clear statement on the subject.

The HSE said it had begun a review of the cases of all under-12s in residential care and would strive, as it always did, to find alternative foster care for them.

Minister for Children Brendan Smith welcomed the report. “It will assist us by pointing out deficiencies in the current system, thus giving us the opportunity to rectify,” he said.

The report was based on half the 93 under-12s in residential care last year.