Fostering in Ireland: who are the carers?

The assessment and training of prospective foster carers is a necessarily intrusive process, which can take about six months from initial application to approval.

It is a really important phase, says Diarmuid Kearney, chief executive of the Irish Foster Care Association. “The carer gets an opportunity to learn about the role and to opt in or out during the process.”

Negative publicity about the issue of children being placed with unassessed carers concerns relative carers, according to Kearney, who does not believe there are active general foster carers who are unassessed.

Although it is not okay to say “just place a child with a relative and we’ll catch up later”, he is concerned about the impact on a child being removed into general foster care while the relative is assessed.

A more creative response, while safeguarding the child, is needed to address the problem, he suggests.

Orchard Children’s Services is one of the private fostering agencies that Tusla uses when it can’t place children within its own resources, and about 4 per cent of approved foster carers are with such private agencies. They generally have a much higher ratio of social workers to carers and will promise 24/7 support. Operating in the greater Dublin region, where the need is greatest, Orchard has about 70 active carers on its books and is always looking to recruit more. It also wants people willing to provide “supported lodgings” to teenagers aged 15-plus, to help them develop independent living skills as they approach aftercare at age 18.

Carers do the same assessment and training for the latter but the main difference is they are allowed to work full-time as well, “whereas in fostering we need people to be there 24/7”, says Russell Lander, Orchard’s human resources manager.

The agency, which has a staff of 20, follows Tusla procedures in assessing prospective carers and most people are motivated by just wanting to help, he says.

“There are obviously cases where people are interested only in the monetary aspect and we tend to weed them out very, very quickly; 99 times out of 100 they won’t get through the assessment. We do financial checks as well; it is not just your personal stuff.”

It is also made very clear that fostering is not a substitute for adoption and that the idea is always to return children to their families if possible.

“We have not continued assessments with people [if] they are too much in the adoption mindset,” adds Lander.

However, now that the Supreme Court has rejected the challenge to the children’s rights referendum and those rights are to be enshrined in the Constitution, it is believed that some long-term foster care placements will be opened up for domestic adoption.