Fresh Start foster service ‘insufficiently resourced’

A foster care provider was not sufficiently resourced to meet demand for placements — around 25% of which ended in an ‘unplanned manner’ — a new report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) states.

The inspection of Fresh Start Fostering Services took place across three days last October, and found it required improvement in 14 of the 18 standards reviewed.

The organisation, which is monitored by the Child and Family Agency, has been operating since 2012 and mainly provides placements in the Dublin Mid-Leinster region. At the time of inspection, it had 17 children in foster care who were placed in 15 foster-care households.