An advocacy group for children in care has expressed concern at HIQA's finding that about one quarter of placements arranged last year by the Fresh Start Fostering Service ended abruptly and in an unplanned way.
EPIC - Empowering People in Care - also said it is worried that the company failed to offer reasons for the high failure rate and that it had taken no steps to prevent a recurrence.
Yesterday HIQA reported on its October inspection of the Fresh Start Fostering Service which has been providing placements for the state's Child and Family Agency since 2012.
During the inspection the state-wide for-profit operation was placing 17 children in care, mostly outside their own areas. Most of them were under the age of 14.
The watchdog found that over the previous 12 months, ten placements had ended abruptly in an unplanned manner and there had been no analysis of this.
Children had gone missing for short periods four times and HIQA's inspectors were not assured that all adults with regular access to the foster homes had been vetted.
EPIC has expressed deep concern at what it called this "very high incidence of placement breakdowns".
Its director, Jennifer Gargan, underlined that HIQA describes many of the children concerned as happy and well cared for.
But she lamented the finding that the breakdowns were linked to the poor matching of children with the carers and the deficit in training for fosterers.
She said HIQA's published remedial actions need to be implemented.
