The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published an inspection report on the foster care service operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in the Dublin South Central service area.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Section 69 of the Child Care Act, 1991, as amended by Section 26 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011, to inspect foster care services provided by Tusla, to report on its findings to the Minister and to inspect services taking care of a child on behalf of Tusla, including non-statutory providers of foster care. HIQA monitors foster care services against the 2003 National Standards for Foster Care.

As part of its 2019 and 2020 monitoring programme, HIQA is conducting inspections across all 17 Tusla service areas, focusing on six standards: the child and family social worker, assessment of children and young people, care planning and review, matching carers with children and young people, safeguarding and child protection and preparation for leaving care and adult life. 

HIQA conducted an inspection of the Dublin South Central service area, located in Tusla’s Dublin Mid-Leinster region, from 12 to 16 October 2020. Of the six standards assessed, two standards were compliant, and four standards were substantially compliant. 

Children who spoke with inspectors all reported that they had a good relationship with their social worker, although some said that they experienced a number of changes to their social workers. Children said they were happy with the contact they had with their social worker and that they liked living with their foster carers. Young adults who spoke with inspectors were happy with the aftercare service provided. There were many examples of good practice initiatives in the area, particularly in relation to increasing the participation of children.

Two hundred and sixty-six (86%) children in foster care had an allocated social worker and 44 (14%) did not have an allocated social worker. While this was not in line with standards, there was an effective system in place to manage the unallocated cases of children in care to ensure they received statutory visits by a social worker and had care plans that were up to date.

All children were visited by a social worker and the quality of the visits were good. There had been an improvement in the frequency of contact with children over the past year. There were good systems in place to ensure management oversight of children’s files and the quality of visits to children in care, but the quality of record keeping in some children’s files was in need of improvement. Assessments of need were carried out on all children placed in foster care and the majority of assessments were of good quality. 

The area had an effective system in place to ensure care plans and child-in-care reviews were up to date for all children in care. The quality of the care plans and review minutes were good, and only a small number of reviews did not take place in line with the frequency required by the regulations. Children who had complex needs and disabilities were adequately supported and there was an effective system to support children and foster carers when a placement was at risk. Placement plans had been developed, but some improvements were required. Voluntary care agreements were up to date for all children whose files were reviewed.

The area attempted to ensure that children were placed with foster carers who could meet their needs but there was a shortage of foster care placements available, which had a direct impact on the areas ability to match children with local foster carers. As a result, children were placed outside of the area and a significant number in private placements. There were a number of children awaiting approval of long-term placements to provide stability for them.

Social workers were committed to ensuring that children were protected from all forms of abuse. Inspectors found that the allegations and serious concerns against foster carers and child protection and welfare concerns were well managed. There were systems in place for the governance and oversight of serious concerns and allegations against foster carers, but this had yet to be developed for oversight of other child protection and welfare concerns relating to children in care. 

The aftercare service was developing and managers were enthusiastic about and committed to providing a good quality, accessible service to all young people leaving care that needed it. Children had their aftercare needs assessed and aftercare plans were developed in a timely manner. However, there was no system, such as exit interviews, for seeking regular feedback from children and young people about the quality of the service. The drop-in service required further development and the area had yet to produce an annual adequacy report for the aftercare service.

Overall, the service provided to children in care was good, and significant improvements were noted in this service area inspection. 

Issues outlined above and other issues identified during the inspection are contained in the compliance plan, which can be found at www.hiqa.ie. The compliance plan will continue to be monitored as part of HIQA’s ongoing regulatory activity.