Children put at risk by ‘major failings’ at private foster care firm
A PRIVATE “for profit” company funded by Tusla to provide foster care to 15 children was found to have major failings in meeting proper standards for safeguarding and protection of the youngsters.
The inspection of Oak Lodge Fostering, which had 14 foster care households around Ireland, found the tracking of its Garda vetting system was inadequate.
One member of staff and two older teenagers living in foster families it employed had not been Garda screened.
The findings emerged in a report by Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) inspectors who examined the provider in January last year and the following September.
Not all foster carers had been trained in Children First guidelines to help recognise child abuse.
The fostering service has since closed, but the children involved remained in their foster families who were transferred to another provider.
In the first inspection, it was not compliant in five standards with major failures in areas of safeguarding and child protection and the supervision, support and training of foster carers.
On the second inspection, it remained non-compliant in six standards, although a social work team leader who made improvements to the service had since been recruited.
An audit visit by Tusla also led to concerns about the management and governance of the service, as well as child protection issues.
This later resulted in Tusla directing that no further children be placed with the company for the time being.
It also led to Tusla staff carrying out safeguarding visits to each of the households where the children were being fostered.
In January, the departure of staff led to worries that there were now no front-line workers to provide supervision and support to foster carers.
Hiqa said that, prior to the
publication of its inspection report this week, it was informed that the service had stopped operating from January 31 last.
Tusla said yesterday that a very small number of children in foster care are currently placed in private foster care placements, at 391 – or less than 10pc. The majority of children are placed with Tusla foster carers.
Jim Gibson, chief operations officer at Tusla, the child and family agency, said: “The inspection report showed a need for improvement and the decision was taken by the provider to close the service.”
Private foster care agencies are monitored by Tusla’s Quality Assurance directorate to assure compliance with the Placement of Children in Foster Care Regulation.
In 2017, Tusla strengthened its governance arrangements for private foster care services which allows it to check progress and current arrangements regularly.
In addition to this, the role of Tusla’s social work service is to supervise the placement of a child in foster care to ensure the placement is meeting his or her needs, it said.
‘The report showed a need to improve and the decision was taken to close the service’