Foster children forced to share beds; Some left with carers who had been refused due to care concerns

The malfunctioning state of foster care services across the Midlands has been laid bare in a new report which shows that some children in placements had to share rooms and even beds with other children because of a lack of available places.

The Hiqa inspection of the Midlands fostering service highlighted a catalogue of issues across Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, and Longford, including children having to rely on black plastic bags to move their belongings or carers who refused to give children their belongings on leaving the placement. In a small number of cases children were placed in houses, which caused overcrowding and resulted in unrelated children sharing bedrooms and sometimes beds.

According to the report, it was not always clear that children were related to, or had an established relationship with, carers who were due to be assessed as relative carers, while the level of monitoring and oversight applied in relative carer placements was also criticised.