Kathleen Funchion questioned whether background checks carried out by Tusla on potential foster carers are robust enough to protect vulnerable children and whether ongoing support and monitoring are adequate. She raised concerns about safety in some foster placements and sought a statement on assessment, vetting and support arrangements.
Assessment and vetting procedures
The minister outlined that Tusla's approval process for general foster carers can take several months and is carried out by a qualified social worker under supervision. Assessments focus on capacity and suitability and include references, medical assessments and Garda vetting, with children not placed until carers are approved. Ongoing Garda vetting also applies to adult family members and to carers' own children when they reach 16 years of age.
Training and support for foster carers
Potential foster carers attend information and training sessions that include how to keep children safe in foster care. Foster carers are assigned a link social worker, separate from the child's social worker, to provide support and supervision and to monitor the impact of fostering on the whole foster family. The deputy and the minister both stressed the need for ongoing support, especially for long-standing carers and when emergency placements extend for months.
Emergency and relative placements
The child care regulations require that assessments for emergency placements with relatives take place as soon as practicable, recognising unanticipated situations where a relative placement may be in a child's best interests initially. However, the standards state that safety checks, including Garda vetting, must be completed before the child is placed.
Resource pressures and recruitment
The minister noted that a national fostering week organised by the Child and Family Agency produced about 350 enquiries that are being followed up. The campaign aimed to recruit more foster parents to reduce reliance on more expensive private placements and to make better use of public resources. Concerns remain about whether there are sufficient social workers and aftercare workers to provide ongoing monitoring and support.
Concerns about wider safeguarding
The deputy referenced recent cases, including Scout in Ireland and other organisations, as examples where vulnerable children have been let down. She argued that in addition to robust background checks, adequate support and resources for foster carers are essential to safeguard children in care.
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My question is in relation to foster carers and background checks that are to be carried out on potential foster carers by Tusla, if these are robust enough to ensure the protection of vulnerable children, particularly because concerns have been raised regarding the safety of some children in foster care, and is all this being dealt with appropriately, and if we can get your statement on the matter. Thanks, Minister. Children in care are among the most vulnerable in our society, and it is the responsibility of Tusla to ensure that they are placed in safe environments. While it's not possible to remove every risk, Tusla makes every effort to assess thoroughly all people who wish to be foster carers. The approval process for general foster carers can take several months. The assessment is carried out by a qualified social worker under the supervision of a social work team leader. The assessment focuses on the capacity and suitability of the applicants to provide safe, secure care to the child. An essential part of the process is to undertake safeguarding checks on potential foster carers to include references, medical assessments, and GARDA vetting. This information is included in the report prepared for the Foster Care Committee to assist them in making a decision regarding approval. Children are not placed with the foster carers until they are approved. The process includes ongoing guard of vetting for foster carers and adult family members, including their own children when they reach 16 years of age. An important part of the assessment process is that potential foster carers attend an information session, information and training session, which includes sessions on how to keep children safe in foster care. In the case of children placed with relative foster carers, the child care regulations say that for an emergency placement in foster care, the assessment must take place as soon as practicable. This is in recognition of unanticipated situations for some children where their best interests may be met, at least initially, by placing them with relatives. However, the standards are clear that safety checks, including GARDA vetting, must take place before the child is placed. As many of the children who are placed with foster carers have previously been neglected or abused, foster carers are advised on ways to be particularly mindful in how they care for the children in this respect. Foster carers, they have a link, a social worker, which is separate to the child's social worker, who provides support and supervision and is attentive to the impact of the fostering situation on all members of the foster carers' family. The protection of children to foster carers' family is the utmost in all circumstances. a lot recently of various cases, I would include Scout in Ireland and other organisations as well, where it's been clear that vulnerable children you know have have been let down basically by various organisations and by the state and we have a history of that in this country and recently there was a national fostering week organised by the Child and Family Agency and I don't have it I think this is the first time they did this I don't have a difficulty with it but it obviously led to a huge increase in inquiries which is a good thing on the one hand because we definitely need good foster parents and they do an excellent job and a very difficult job and one I have to say I don't envy I really don't know how a lot of them do it but we do really need to to ask the the question about not just background checks I suppose but support as well for those foster parents and ongoing particularly ongoing and other deputies have raised in their questions earlier in relation to resources and the fact that we have we don't have enough social workers and you know aftercare workers so are we really in a situation where we can monitor for you know on an ongoing basis do we really have the resources to do that and I suppose that's the the crux of the question thanks thank you thank you deputy and you mentioned yourself there the recent campaign that they conducted in order to see can they get really effectively more people interested in providing foster caring and as you indicated it did result in about 350 inquiries which are now being followed up so that's really substantial and congratulations again for Tuesday for doing that and I think it was the first time and one of the reasons that they did do it is in relation to resources and and the best way to just supposed to spend them and I think the deputy and others would have raised before the difference in costs between private placements for children in care in addition to sorry as compared with the public foster care so those who are supported by Tusla and there is there is a difference in cost and so they they ran this campaign in order to see could they not get more people interested in actually being becoming foster carers the foster parents rather in in from the perspective of working with Tusla in that regard so I think it wasn't that what necessarily just cost driven but it was conscious of that and so obviously the more Tusla of a cares foster cares or parents with Tusla who are providing that service our resources will be able to be better spent than in supporting uh those who are uh two more questions brought in yes deputy your final supplementary no I suppose part of the reason for this question as well as is because foster parents would contact us and say they don't feel that there is a huge amount of support particularly when people maybe are foster parents for a long time and they're they're kind of sort of well-known and a good placement but then they maybe get asked to take emergency cases with very little support and an emergency case then can turn into months and months later and children are still with them and sometimes people are left you know with a lot of unanswered questions so it's just I just think I'm just always conscious of our history and how much we have failed children in the past and I just would hope that we're starting off on a right foot if they are going to have these types of weeks and if they are going to have information sessions that that is always followed up absolutely robustly and that that is ongoing that it's not just one check that it's ongoing because first of all foster parents themselves need support and second of all we need to ensure always that children the most vulnerable children in our society are totally in a safe environment and that's that's the concerns I have thank you deputy minister to conclude exactly I'll just say briefly so we can have other questions is that you know as I've already indicated the child has a social worker the foster carers have a link social worker you know those are considered to be forms of real direct support I hear you though that some foster carers may be representing to you that they feel that they could use more support I you know will communicate that to Tusla I think that that shouldn't stop them from actually going out and looking for more but that that should be an integral aspect of if we are increasing the numbers that we need to ensure that there is additional support thank you minister you
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