Hiqa seeks strategy on vulnerable children

The health watchdog has called for a national strategy to overcome the problem of placing vulnerable children in care homes that do not meet their needs.

The call follows an analysis by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) of its inspections of child residential services in 2012 which found that children were often placed in homes based on a vacancy rather than suitability.

Hiqa said this practice contributed to placement breakdowns, causing “considerable disruption in children lives”.

Hiqa said a national strategy, based on a geographical needs analysis was needed, “designed to reduce the number of children placed in other jurisdictions or in services that move them away from their own localities”.

In 2012, the HSE spent €11,557 per week on six children sent on placement to Northampton in Britain, and €1,197 on one child sent to Boys Town in Nebraska. Another child was sent to Oakview Hospital in Kent.

Hiqa also found that more than one quarter of centres inspected did not meet the fire safety standard, including in relation to staff training and fire safety drills.

Just one third of 33 residential homes fully met the standard on staff vetting. In the area of monitoring, almost one-in-five homes failed to meet the standard. Hiqa said this was because the HSE “did not have sufficient monitoring officers in place in all areas, due to staff vacancies and the concurrent moratorium”.

Staff vacancies were also impacting on foster care services. Hiqa said because of vacancies, “a lot of support [of foster carers] took place over the telephone and inevitably this kind of telephone supervision is less robust than a face-to-face meeting”.

Jennifer Gargan, director of EPIC, a charity for young people in care, said while strides had been made in residential care services, foster care services continued to raise many concerns, mainly due to a lack of resources.

The HSE said it was addressing the problems raised in the Hiqa 2012 reports, including developing a national protocol for all children’s residential centres.

In addition, independent risk assessments have been carried out by independent fire safety specialists; some centres have closed and necessary works are being carried out in others.

In relation to dealing with children with challenging behaviour, the HSE said it has put in place a national specialised clinical service “to provide focused interventions to young people who have high risk behaviours associated with complex clinical needs”.

To address the shortage of foster carers, the HSE said it recently launched a national fostering awareness campaign ‘Change a Life, Become a Foster Carer’ and has received over 700 enquiries so far.

There are more than 6,000 children in care in Ireland.