The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an inspection report on the Child and Family Agency (Tusla’s) foster care services in the Midlands 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 and 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.

HIQA conducted a thematic inspection of the foster care service in the Midlands service area in August 2022. 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.

Of the eight standards assessed, two were compliant, and six were substantially compliant.  
There were effective governance and management structures in place to oversee the fostering service and to ensure the service provided was safe, consistent and appropriate to children’s needs. Monitoring systems were well developed and the service proactively addressed deficits in service provision to implement change and improve practice if this was required. There were many areas of good practice and significant improvements since previous inspections of the service. Some further improvements were required to ensure the service operated in full compliance with the standards and policies, such as delays in achieving statutory work within the required timelines. The deficits identified did not pose a risk and there were no systems risks identified. 

There was an effective management team who were experienced and competent to oversee the provision of a high-quality service. Communications systems were strong and this supported the governance and oversight of the service. 

Staff vacancies had impacted the service’s capacity to be fully compliant with the standards. Not all children in care had an allocated social worker and not all foster carers had an allocated link worker. The service had implemented an effective system to manage the unallocated cases, to mitigate the associated risks. Care plans for children with complex needs were child centred and of good quality. 

There were good systems in place to manage the recruitment and retention of foster carers but despite efforts of the recruitment team, the area experienced difficulties recruiting the number and range of foster carers required to meet demands in the area. The lack of placement options impacted on the matching process for children and carers. The foster care committee was well governed and there were effective arrangements to ensure oversight and governance of private foster care placements. 

Mechanisms to enable children, families and foster carers to provide feedback were good. Complaints were well managed and there was effective oversight of the process. Although there were some delays in managing all representations and complaints, this did not pose a risk to children’s safety. 

The inspection report can be found at the link below.