Fostering service in breach of standards

A HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) fostering service in Meath is in breach of national standards for foster care by failing to ensure all children in the service have a designated social worker.

An inspection of the service found a third of the children in foster care in the area — 38 out of 115 — were without this key support.

The Social Services Inspectorate (SSI), said its staff were “extremely concerned” at the finding because it compromised assessment of the children’s needs and care planning.

“Firstly, a key aspect of care planning, contact with birth families, was inconsistently managed. Some children seen during the inspection saw birth families regularly, while two had not seen their birth families in over a year,” the SSI report said.

Inspectors said limited meetings with birth families “raises concerns about the children’s sense of identity and understanding of their personal history”.

Of the 38 children without an allocated social worker, five did not have care plan reviews within the year prior to the inspection.

Inspectors warned the lack of care plan reviews “can result in children drifting in care as options to return them to their birth families or to explore adoption are not given adequate consideration”.

Two foster carers had applied to adopt their foster children in 2004 and 2006 respectively, but no significant progress had been made at the time of the inspection.

The lack of social workers for some children also meant the safeguarding role of the child and family social worker could not be fulfilled for those children.

At the time of the inspection, 77 children had an assigned social worker from the 10 social workers available. The principal social worker presented an analysis of the social work services to senior managers in February 2007, highlighting potential risks associated with the staff deficits, including the high number of children in care without social workers.

The principal social worker requested 21 staff posts, additional to 33 existing posts, to help meet demand and reduce the level of potential risk to children.

At the time of the inspection, four social work posts had been approved. Yesterday, a statement from the HSE said approval had been received to appoint an additional six workers.

The report also found that while the majority of foster carers had been appropriately assessed and vetted, there was a waiting list of 12-18 months for responding to applications by fostering candidates, and the process of assessment took between six and nine months, significantly longer than the 16 weeks required.

Inspectors were also concerned that there was a lack of clarity for foster carers on how to respond appropriately to disclosures of alleged abuse. One foster carer told inspectors that she notified the Meath local health area of a child’s disclosure of abuse but received no directions or support in caring for this child or safeguarding the other children in her care.