Guardians tell of fears over speaking out
A GROUP of foster parents have slammed the Government for refusing to take whistleblower complaints from them about their child protection concerns.
The care givers say they are barred from making protected disclosure complaints because the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, says they are not employees.
They are fearful of making serious complaints through the standard Tusla Tell Us complaints system for fear of losing their foster child as a result.
An Oireachtas committee was told by Tusla CEO Bernard Gloster this week that senior staff had invited foster carers to meet with them and share their concerns.
However, a number of foster carers have hit back saying many “were not asked to take part in group discussions with Tusla”.
One foster carer said she has serious concerns over breaches to the Hague Convention and interference in adoptions by social workers and those in authority.
Another claimed a social worker who was counselling a birth mother placing her child for adoption was also assessing the potential adoptive family for the child in question.
She said: “One social worker cannot play multiple roles in adoptions.
“All social workers need to be independent and not be in touch with the family who wants to adopt your birth mother’s child who you are assessing.
“Sure that’s what the nuns were doing years ago”.
The group of 48 foster carers said they believe there are “criminal matters” that need to be probed – but even asking the gardai to investigate is “challenging”. One woman said she repeatedly asked for help with a teenage girl with high special needs and in the end, had to walk away from the placement vowing to “never foster again”.
Another foster carer said: “We can’t be named because of the private identity of our foster children, but there are things happening in the system that are being covered up and brushed under the carpet. “Children are being thrown about the system with five and six placements, but no proper supports for the child means no proper supports for the foster carers.
“We have a carer whose child was lighting fires and burning everything and despite repeated concerns raised with Tusla, nothing was done and she returned the child to the system.
“That person is deeply traumatised to this day.
“There are no proper supports and you are almost blackened for asking for help.
“We want to make protected disclosures, but there is no system to do that in this country for foster carers who are the heart of the system and are the voice of the child at that time.”
In a statement a spokesperson for the Child and Family Agency said Tusla’s national director of services and integration had invited foster carers to meet in recent months.
They added that during that process “if a foster carer highlighted an issue, specific to their situation, this was addressed on an individual basis”.
A spokesperson for the Department of Children said it understood there were a “number of avenues” to foster carers who had concerns – but agreed that they did not qualify under the Protected Disclosures Act because they are “not employees of Tusla”.
One social worker cannot play multiple roles in adoptions FOSTER CARER VOICES CONCERNS AT SYSTEM