Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published an inspection report on a private foster care service. This report refers to Orchard Children’s Services.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs 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 for Children and Youth Affairs 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.

An announced inspection of Orchard Children’s Services was carried out over four days from 1 to 4 May 2018. Of the six standards assessed during this inspection, three were found to be compliant and three substantially compliant.

This was the second inspection of the fostering service undertaken by HIQA. The service was found to be well-resourced and well-managed, with systems in place to ensure that children were protected and that foster carers were provided with support and training to fulfil their role.

Each foster care household had an allocated fostering link worker social worker who provided good supervision and support. There was also dedicated out-of-hours service to support foster carers. Reviews of foster carers were carried out regularly in line with the standards and additional reviews took place when required, such as those following allegations or concerns.

Improvements were required in a small number of areas to reach compliance with the standards, such as ensuring all foster carers received training in Children First (2017), and updating the service’s policies on child protection and complaints.

Orchard Children’s Services has provided action plan responses to address the substantial compliances identified on inspection which contain timelines for implementing these actions.