Foster carers lacked Garda vetting, report finds

A report into fostering services in parts of Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow has found that not all foster carers had Garda vetting, while more than half had not been reviewed for more than three years.

The report from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) of the Dublin South West, Kildare and Wicklow West service area found where reviews of foster carers were completed, they were of good quality. However, it said 189 (63 per cent) of the 298 foster carers had not had a review for more than three years.

“This meant that the service could not ensure that foster carers had the continuing capacity to provide safe care,” it said.

“Garda vetting had not been updated and foster carers’ performance, training needs and support requirements had not been reviewed.”

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The report found the system in place to ensure up-to-date Garda vetting for foster carers and people over the age of 16 who were living in foster care households was not robust.

“There were significant delays in completing relative foster care assessments,” it added. “The governance arrangements to ensure relative foster care assessments were allocated and assessed in a timely manner was not effective.”

The announced inspection of the service area was carried out over four days last February.

Inspectors said there was no overall system in place to ensure appropriate safeguarding for foster carers without an allocated link worker.

Of the 298 foster carers, 73 (24 per cent) had no allocated link worker. Of these, 14 were classified as dual unallocated, which meant that children in care in a foster care placement did not have an allocated social worker and the foster carers also did not have an allocated link worker.

The report found that while there was a support group in place for birth children of foster carers, support groups for foster carers were not firmly established.

“Additionally, similar to other Tusla service areas, there was no dedicated out-of-hours service to support foster carers,” it said.

Inspectors also found the area did not have sufficient numbers of foster carers to meet the demand for services. Data showed that 29 foster carers left the panel voluntarily during the previous 12 months while only 11 foster carers had been approved and added to the panel.

“There was no formal retention strategy in place for foster carers and current methods for retaining foster carers were poor,” the report said.

“Foster carers who attended a focus group with inspectors said when they had an allocated link worker, this helped them continue with fostering. However, they said the lack of support groups and limited respite negatively impacted on their experience of fostering.”

Tusla said it is implementing a comprehensive plan to strengthen fostering services in the Dublin South West, Kildare and West Wicklow area, which includes the creation of a third fostering team.

Patricia Finlay, Tusla’s service director for Dublin Mid-Leinster said “unfortunately staffing shortages and growing demands in the area have affected the allocation of social workers to carers and children”.

“The creation of a third fostering team is crucial in addressing this,” Ms Finlay said. “The extra capacity created by the new team will be supported by a strengthened oversight and quality assurance system.”