HIQA conducted a thematic inspection of the foster care service in Donegal in October 2021 and in Galway/Roscommon in November 2021. Of the eight standards assessed in Donegal, three were compliant, and five were substantially compliant. Of the eight standards assessed in Galway/Roscommon, two were compliant, and six were substantially compliant. 

These thematic inspections are primarily focused on assessing the efficacy of governance arrangements across foster care services and the impact these arrangements have for children in receipt of foster care. This thematic programme is the third and final phase of a three-phased schedule of inspection programmes monitoring foster care services.

Children reported positive experiences of foster care and the social work departments in both areas. The majority of children said that they were happy with the contact they had with their social workers and felt listened to. However, some children in the Galway/Roscommon service area did not have a social worker, and some children told inspectors that they wanted consistency in social workers.

External professionals reported that the services were child centred and responsive where children’s rights were promoted and social workers acted protectively to safeguard children. They said that despite staffing challenges, foster carers and children received the support they need.

There were effective governance and management systems in place in both service areas to ensure a safe service was delivered appropriate to children’s needs. Donegal had completed the majority of actions contained in its quality improvement plan, with further changes due to enhance participation in child-in-care reviews, analyse recruitment and retention strategies for foster carers, and to develop more child-friendly formats for complaints. In Galway/Roscommon, actions had been taken to address delays in allocation of social workers and the completion of foster care reviews. 

The Donegal area had experienced staffing challenges which impacted on its capacity to recruit an appropriate range of foster carers, to meet the diverse needs of children. Furthermore, there were a small number of children and foster carers who did not have an allocated social worker and the area had implemented an effective system to provide them with support. The management team was actively working on these deficits and actions to address these were reflected in the quality improvement plans. 

There were effective systems in place to provide assurance to managers on service provision. Regular operational meetings took place and trackers maintained by both areas included those in relation to serious concerns, allegations, foster care reviews, Garda Vetting, statutory visits, unallocated cases, safety and risk management plans, among others. 

Foster carers reported that there was good communication with the service and social workers listened to children and acted in their best interests. Some issues highlighted by foster carers as requiring improvement in Donegal included delays obtaining full care orders for children and their decision making capacity in relation to court ordered access. While in Galway/Roscommon some foster carers reported being without an allocated link social worker for several months.

The Galway/Roscommon area had successfully recruited 24 new foster carers in the 12 months prior to inspection, despite staffing challenges. While there were a number of unallocated children in care, the area had put in place an adequate system to provide oversight of these unallocated cases.

The Foster Care Committees (FCCs) in both areas were well led and included individuals and agencies with a broad and relevant range of experience, knowledge and expertise. 

Complaints were well managed in both areas. The areas welcomed feedback and had an effective system to monitor and review complaints. There was a process to identify learning from complaints made and action was taken to improve service provision, if required.

In Donegal, improvements were required in the management of case files, as not all records were uploaded in a timely manner and not all information relating to foster carers was contained in a single filing system. The recruitment of foster carers was recognised as a priority for the area. This was identified as a risk as there was an insufficient range of foster carers to meet the demands for placements, particularly after a significant rise in the number of children coming into care in the area.

Although there was no general foster carers recruited in 2020, significant progress had been made in 2021 with regard to the recruitment of carers. In Galway/Roscommon, areas for improvement included ensuring the complaints process was fully followed, ensuring all children and foster carers were allocated, and using standardised templates and naming conventions for case records on NCCIS, so that children’s information could be quickly and easily retrieved.

An inspection of the Carlow/Kilkenny/South Tipperary area was conducted in October 2021 to monitor the service area’s implementation of the actions in its child protection and welfare and foster care services arising from previous HIQA inspections. Of the five standards assessed, one standard was compliant, three standards were substantially compliant, and one standard was non-compliant moderate. 

This inspection followed up on the management of waitlists for children and families who were unallocated a social worker, management of waitlists for retrospective cases, statutory visits to children and child-in-care reviews. HIQA found that significant progress had been achieved to address these areas, with further work progressing. However, a significant number of children 71 (24%) continued to be unallocated a child and family social worker, and children experienced frequent changes in social workers or keyworkers.

There had been changes to the governance and management of the service since the previous inspection. The governance and management arrangements were effective, ensured accountability for the delivery of a safe and child-centred service. Staff reported that there was strong leadership and a continuous improvement drive which underpinned the work of frontline managers and their teams.

Significant progress had been made by the area to address the non-compliances in relation to care planning and child-in-care reviews for children in care on foot of governance arrangements put in place.

Staffing continued to be a challenge and the children in care teams were particularly under resourced. However, this inspection found that the management of waiting lists in the child protection and welfare service had improved and there were no high priority cases awaiting allocation. Furthermore, the area had successfully recruited 24 new foster carers in the 12 months prior to inspection. While there were a number of unallocated children in care, the area had put an adequate system in place to oversee these unallocated cases.

The governance and management arrangements were effective, ensured accountability for the delivery of a safe and child-centred service. Staff reported that there was strong leadership and a continuous improvement drive which underpinned the work of front-line managers and their teams.

While there continued to be a delay in the implementation of Tusla’s procedure for the management of retrospective allegations, known as the child abuse substantiation procedure (CASP), this inspection found that the management of retrospective allegations of abuse in the area had significantly improved. A robust screening process had been implemented which identified any children at risk and informed the priority level assigned.