The plight of Ireland's foster carers: 'Do I give the kids back? Or do I face poverty in my old age?'
Despite all the frustrations, there is no stopping foster carers with members of the Movement 4 change in foster care group unable see themselves leaving fostering, instead they want State foster care to be the gold standard. File picture
"I have a decision to make," says a woman we will call Jane. "Do I pause my fostering and give these kids back, a placement breakdown because of this shortfall I didn't know about? Or do I put myself at risk of old age poverty?"
As a man once said on the Carlsberg ad, they are not great options. And following a lengthy discussion with a group of foster carers who have formed their own grass roots organisation, it is clear that they will continue to care for children, many of whom have been with them for years after being entrusted into their care by the State. But it does not mean that the issues go away.
The group is called Movement 4 change in foster care, and at the time of our discussion it has 11 members. Despite the small size of the group, however, they have become increasingly vocal in their advocacy, not just for the children in their care but also for other foster carers.
They have already held a meeting with Tusla CEO Bernard Gloster, something they described as "very fruitful". The head of the Child and Family Agency encouraged them to meet regularly and inform Tusla of issues as they arise.
Some of those concerns are not new - the "pension anomaly" is one of them. The failure by government to increase the foster care allowance is another, and there are others, such as what they see as a discrepancy between Tusla foster carers and those who foster children for private companies.
Members of the group cannot be identified due to the risk of identifying the children in their care, but they are from all parts of the country.
One of the group has fostered long term but has also in recent years provided emergency fostering: "You get a phone call and young person comes - it could be from the guards, a placement breakdown, or something that has happened in their homes, something that has blown up. We are still fostering, we know that there aren't any foster carers coming in to take over."
Therein lies another issue, and one acknowledged by Tusla: despite multiple campaigns there is still a very thin margin between the number of foster carers who give up or retire, and those who are recruited. This, at a time when there have been increasingly complex cases coming to the attention of the Child and Family Agency, not to mention the smaller number of unaccompanied minors arriving here, many as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The group agrees that while fostering may be a vocation, foster carers cannot run the risk of being in a vice-grip of cost-of-living expenses and limited capacity to save money or guard against pension insecurity, with foster carers not eligible for contributory pension contributions from the State.
"When I heard from a meeting of our own branch that 20 years ago, they were looking for it 20 years ago, you think enough is enough," Jane says.
The HomeCaring Periods Scheme is designed to make it easier for people who take time out of their working life to care for children or adults to qualify for a State Pension (Contributory). Under the scheme, periods of time when you were caring for someone can be included in your social insurance record.
As Jane sees it, the 20 years HomeCaring periods have to be included with any unemployment credits, so any individual's credits plus HomeCaring periods cannot add up to more than 20 years. An individual needs 40 years' amalgamated contributions, 20 of which have to be full paid contributions, to qualify for full pension, and anything short of this will reduce pension on a sliding scale.
She has a few examples. "Foster carer who cares for a child long term. Child goes home at 11. Another child comes along. This child ages out of care. Another child comes along. Again child goes home after a few years. Pretty soon the HomeCaring periods are used up. Does an excellent, experienced, valuable foster carer have to stop fostering so that she can go back to work to get a full pension?"
The group praised the attitude of Bernard Gloster and Tusla Director of Services and Integration, Kate Duggan, to addressing this and other issues, but ultimately it needs a government response. The group recently met with Minister for Equality and Children, Roderic O'Gorman, and are hoping to speak with Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys.
They also asked Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohue, for a meeting on the issue, but were informed by the department at the start of November: "Unfortunately, Minister Donohoe has declined your invitation to a meeting and the Minister has asked me to pass along his apologies."
The group see the pension issue as a major concern, particularly given the likelihood that one foster carer will almost certainly have to give up full-time work. Another member of the group, who we will call Helen, says: "A quarter of house owners expect to be paying mortgage or rent after they retire. You are not going to get people to give up a pension or a reduced pension like I have when they are going to be paying that in their retirement years."
The group want to see the Foster Carers Allowance increased, and not just because of the challenges posed by the rising cost of living. One member of the group, who we will call Brian, refers to a 13-year wait to access an autism assessment for a child. This says more about the delays experienced by everyone when it comes to accessing disability services, but the group said children coming into their care have already experienced trauma; their needs can be acute, they may need mental health supports, and sometimes the only option is to go private to access it.
Tusla said it does not know the number of foster children currently seeking an assessment of need, but said that next year it is establishing its own Therapeutics Services (Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy & Psychology) in six areas for children coming into the care of the State and strengthening the oversight of commissioned therapeutic services for children in care.
There is a strong sense from the foster care group that much of this is all tied together - that children present with more complex needs but did not have the necessary assessments or services at a sufficiently early stage; that this can exacerbate other difficulties in their lives, and that the foster carer then faces the considerable task of providing stability over a long period of time without always having the financial means they believe are required.
One of the group said that there can be circumstances where a foster carer seeks and secures an assessment for the child in their care, but that they can effectively be in the dark as to the results or diagnosis, because they are not the 'direct' parent.
According to a spokesperson for the CFA: "Tusla acts ‘in a loco parentis’ capacity for children who are in the care of the State. Tusla contracts foster carers directly or through private providers to provide care for children and to meet their individual needs.
"If a child is assessed as needing additional services, then Tusla works with other State agencies to address the child’s needs and/or procures required services privately. Foster carers are key to knowing and understanding the child’s needs and Tusla works closely with the child and the foster carers, birth parents, and relevant others, to ensure the child’s needs are met.
"However, in the development of our Foster Care Strategic Plan, foster carers and birth parents highlighted issues in relation to communication and information sharing and we are committed to strengthening our engagement and communication in the best interest of children and young people in care, their foster carers and birth parents."
Tusla has set out to reduce the level of private residential care provision and has published a new strategy on foster care. One of the Movement 4 change in foster care group used to work for a private foster care company before moving to fostering directly for Tusla. She says facilitating private occupational therapy meant no long waiting lists, that homework was set out if a child was suspended, that loyalty payments were made to foster carers and that children would be given money at Christmas. The link worker, she says, was virtually ever-present.
"I knew I was going to lose all that by moving to Tusla but I didn't realise you are very much on your own," she says.
According to Tusla: "The existing Service Level Agreements with Private Foster Care Agencies state that the foster care allowance paid to Foster Carers must be in line with the rate set by the Minister and that any additional allowances or payments must be linked to either medical or educational needs.
"Tusla is currently engaged with all agencies to ensure compliance with same."
According to Jane: "We are not here to bash the agencies, they are set up right - maybe Tusla needs to learn from them." And yet at the same time, "we don't want everybody to jump to the agencies."
That said, Bernard Gloster has admitted that Tusla can learn from private fostering companies, something reiterated by a Tusla spokesperson in response to questions posed by the group. "In the development of the Tusla Foster Care Strategic Plan 2022-2025, we consulted with over 500 internal and external stakeholders," the spokesperson said.
"This has resulted in significant learning for the Agency and has supported us in developing an ambitious plan, underpinned by 29 clear recommendations to increase our statutory foster care provision, to continue to place over 90% of children and young people in care in foster care and to develop our services to better meet the needs of our children and young people, our foster carers, and our staff, by 2025.
"It is well established in both public and private services that there are elements of good and best practice. Because private foster care companies are smaller they are sometimes able to devote more attention to their carers and it is from this that our learning can possibly come."
In 2021, total foster care expenditure by Tusla amounted to just over €111,105,000. Of this figure, expenditure on private foster care amounted to €24,705,000.
Foster carers are paid a statutory fostering allowance of €325 for each child 12 years and under and €352 for each child 12 years and older. The current weekly cost of a private foster care placement is €1,025 (including the provision of the placement, the allowance and funding of the allocated link social work provided by the non-statutory provider).
As of the end of August 2022, there were 5,184 children in a foster care placement. 3,699 of these children were in general foster care, and of this number 503 were in a private foster care placement. There were 1,485 children in relative foster care.
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However, a Tusla spokesperson said: "A comparison between these costs [private versus Tusla foster care] would not be accurate as overall costs for statutory carers would also include staffing resources, administrative resources, and corporate services."
The Child and Family Agency recently published figures which showed a significant increase in the amount of 'enhanced payments' made to foster carers, reflecting the greater needs of some young people in the system.
But for Brian, this is a "unicorn" payment - he personally doesn't know of anyone who has received it, yet feels it is very often warranted. He sees occasions when he - and other foster carers - are at loggerheads with the chief social worker regarding a child in their care.
He says:
"If I am being a pain in the arse advocating for my child I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting it."
Yet despite all the frustrations, there is no stopping - the members of the group cannot see themselves leaving fostering and want State foster care to be the gold standard. "Everybody here will say the same thing - it's very hard to break away from it once you're in it," says Helen.
"We don't want to see fostering fail, we want to keep it up."
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