Concerns over aftercare for Cork foster children in Hiqa report

Children in foster care in Cork receive a good service from the HSE but there is still room for improvement in the service including more consistent aftercare for those going into independent living and a better match with foster families, a Hiqa report has found.

The report on HSE Fostering Services in the Cork area was generally positive, with the report authors noting the majority of children were in “safe, stable placements where they received a high level of care”.

However, the Hiqa report did express concern regarding the level of aftercare support being offered to young people who were preparing to move into independent living, describing the provision of aftercare as “inequitable”, with many children not receiving dedicated aftercare.

The report was based on an inspection carried out this year which found there were 881 children living in foster care in the Cork area who were being cared for by 358 foster carers and 207 relative carers. Of these, 90 per cent of children had an allocated social worker.

“There had been some significant improvements in the delivery of the service since the previous inspection in September 2009 while some required improvements at that time continued not to be fully implemented,” said the Hiqa report.

While the HSE prioritised the placement of children with relatives where appropriate, children were not always living with families from their own own cultural, ethnic and religious background - and this had the potential to adversely impact on a child.

The Hiqa report also noted that the needs of children with a disability were not consistently met in the Cork area, which includes the four Local Health Areas of North Lee, South Lee, North Cork and West Cork.

Parents interviewed by the Hiqa inspectors were generally very happy with the care their child received and children generally received a good level of support from professionally qualified social worker, although a small number did not have a dedicated social worker.

“Managers and social work personnel were found to be committed and dedicated professionals. They demonstrated a good working knowledge of the individual children allocated to them,” said the report.

Foster carers were similarly found to be committed to the children in their care and they demonstrated positive interactions with the children and provided stable, safe and nurturing environments which promoted the welfare of the children.

“Not all foster carers had an allocated link worker. However, the majority of foster carers reported that social workers responded to them when needed,” said the Hiqa report, which did note that the uptake of training by foster carers was “poor”.

The report also expressed concern at the length of time it was taking to carry out a comprehensive assessment and approval process to ensure the suitable of foster carers and improvements were required in terms of recruitment, assessment and training of foster carers.