HSE claim all foster children have social worker ‘untrue’

A CLAIM by the Health Service Executive (HSE) that all children in foster care in Cork city and county had an allocated social worker was not borne out during an inspection of foster care services.

In a report published yesterday, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) said their inspectors had been supplied with data by the HSE in June 2009 indicating that “100% of children” in Cork city, North Cork and West Cork had an allocated social worker – but during an inspection earlier this year, it emerged 25 cases were unallocated due to maternity leave.

The HSE was also unable to give a figure for the number of children who had not been visited in the past six months by a child and family social worker.