Report finds five foster care services operated by Tusla were non-compliant

Kenneth Fox

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) have published an inspection report on the foster care service provided by the Child and Family Agency’s (Tusla’s) Separated Children Seeking International Protection service.

The Separated Children Seeking International Protection service offers an urgent response to the needs of unaccompanied children who arrive in Ireland.

HIQA conducted an announced inspection of this service from the 26th to the 28th of November 2024.

Of the eight foster care standards that were assessed, one was found to be compliant, two were found to be substantially compliant and the other five were found to be not compliant.

They said the service had made positive changes since the previous inspection in November 2023.

The management team reviewed and developed structures of governance for the management and monitoring of the foster care services.

In addition, there was improved oversight and management of risk. All children in foster care had an allocated social worker who coordinated their care.

All foster carers had a link social worker and the service had safeguarding measures in place, including An Garda Síochána vetting and Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017) training for all foster carers.

Foster carers spoken with reported that they were well ed and supervised by their link worker and were aware of how to access out of hours services if required.

Further improvements were needed for the service to come into compliance with national standards and regulations.

The inspection found that care plan reviews did not always take place in line with regulations and that there were inconsistencies in the quality of these care plans.

In addition, child-in-care review meeting minutes were not recorded as a standard practice, there were gaps in statutory visits to children by social workers, and some children’s files were not up to date with the required documentation.

Governance and oversight of placements required strengthening and practice about safeguarding and child protection required improvement.

The inspection found that some of the improvements were too recent to establish if the service could sustain the improvements over time.

Following the inspection, management submitted a compliance plan to address issues identified during the inspection.

Some actions in the compliance plan were deemed to be unsatisfactory and did not adequately assure HIQA that the service would come into compliance with one of the standards