Only 10 families recruited for emergency care

FEWER than 10 families have been recruited nationally under a new out-of-hours safety service to provide emergency foster care for children at risk – two years after a Co Wexford father orchestrated the deaths of his family.

Instead of a nationwide out-of-hours social work service to respond to emergency child protection cases, the HSE has come up with a number of less costly alternatives, including out-of-hours emergency foster placements.

The “emergency place of safety service” will be provided by families recruited by Five Rivers, a private foster care agency awarded the contract last December following an EU tender process. To date a family has been recruited in each of the following locations: Kildare, Cork city and county, Portlaoise, Longford, Galway, Donegal and Sligo/Leitrim.