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.

According to the report, “children presented as happy and content in their foster homes” and “overall, Fresh Start fostering service was providing good quality care through its foster carers — when children were matched with carers who could provide for their needs”.

“However, there were a high number of placements that were not successful for the children and carers and this was concerning.” It added that the availability of support to all foster carers — and first-time foster carers in particular, needed to improve.

It said out of a total of 41 placements, 10 ended in an unplanned way in the 12 months prior to the inspection.

Fourteen out of 17 children were in placements that were long distances from their homes, while the complaints system was not well-developed. Hiqa also said Fresh Start fostering service “did not consistently get sufficient information on children’s needs prior to placements being made”.

While the report found that children were safe in their placements and that the quality of assessments of foster carers was good, “inspectors were not assured — due to poor recording mechanisms — that all adults living in or with significant unsupervised access to foster homes had been vetted.

“Out of five files reviewed by inspectors, only three had evidence of An Garda Síochána vetting for adults other than the foster care applicants.”

It said: “The agency did not have sufficient numbers of foster carers to meet the demand for placements.

“On the first day of the inspection, inspectors heard the director of fostering services refuse three placement requests on the basis that there were no suitable families available. There was no plan in place to retain foster carers.”

In a comprehensive response to the Hiqa action plan, Fresh Start pledged to address all areas of concern.