Reports highlight issues in foster care

Photo: © HIQA

Two HIQA reports on foster care in the west and Dublin show major deficiencies in services.

Inspectors found that in the Sligo/Leitirm West Cavan area 6 of 8 standards were found to be non compliant – three of which were major breaches.

There were significant concerns about the recording, filing and IT systems and complaints were not appropriately classified.

There had been a high level of staff turnover the year before which impacted on the frequency of visits to foster carers.

There were also delays in garda vetting.

In the Dublin north area 4 out of 8 standards were not met, 3 of which were major non compliances.

Garda vetting of foster carers had not being updated, there was issues with safeguarding visits and delays in approving relative carers.

Tusla says it’s committed to improving its compliance and is implementing action plans in response to the two reports.