The owner of a foster care service which has been criticised after a Health Information and Quality Authority report found significant deficits in how it assessed prospective foster carers has confirmed he is closing the service.
David Durney, of Newbridge Co Kildare, revealed that he was also the operational director of Fresh Start Care Holdings Ltd when it failed a HIQA inspection on four counts in late February.
Mr Durney, who is the main company director of Fresh Start, confirmed to RTÉ News that he had taken over the running of the foster care agency on an interim basis after the departure of a recently-appointed operational director.
Speaking by phone, he explained that he is not a qualified social worker, which is a minimum requirement for the post.
He said that as the owner of the company, he took full responsibility for its failings.
He said he made a safeguarding decision to close the service when he realised he could not recruit or retain personnel required to ensure the service complied with HIQA standards.
He said HIQA’s negative findings, published today, were due to "bad luck" in recruiting personnel.
Fresh Start was operating in Tusla's (the Child and Family Agency's) Dublin Mid-Leinster region when it was inspected by HIQA over three days last spring.
The service operates from Staplestown Road in Carlow town.
At the time it was responsible for the placement of ten children in eight foster care households located across the country in counties Laois, Wicklow, Limerick, Kildare, Meath and Dublin.
Eight of the children were under the age of 15.
The watchdog found the service seriously failed to comply with five of the 11 standards inspected.
Inspectors identified 13 serious and adverse incidents in the previous 12 months.
Today's inspection report also states that:
- The service's director was not suitably qualified or experienced to oversee a foster care agency.
- Key staff failed to demonstrate the necessary competencies to deliver a safe service.
- Inspectors were not assured that two allegations against foster carers had been notified to relevant authorities, including Tusla, or that appropriate actions had been taken.
- Records did not adequately outline how any child's needs would be met by any foster carer.
- In the absence of a defined system in Fresh Start, foster carers had organised respite themselves.
One carer with a long-term foster child provided numerous respite placements simultaneously and there were 63 respite episodes involving other children staying at the same home.
The social worker assigned to the long-term foster child in the same home complained she was not always informed of these respite arrangements or any potential risks beforehand.
One child who was restricted to having supervised access with its parent had been alone in that parent's care during a visit facilitated by Fresh Start staff.
And the company's staff had not identified the need for garda vetting for relatives of foster carers who were providing regular respite for one child in State care.
HIQA escalated this issue to the director of the service to ensure garda vetting was completed as soon as possible.
Following a Tusla monitoring inspection last September the service had temporarily ceased admitting new children.
Mr Durney confirmed to RTÉ News that he is also the owner of Fresh Start Residential Services, which operates ten units, mostly in Leinster, tasked with caring for vulnerable children in State care.
He said the findings about his fostering service were due to "bad luck" in recruiting personnel and that he was closing it down because of difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff.
He said they did not undermine confidence in his residential operation as the two were "completely separate".
Tusla satisfied children are safe
Tusla has said is satisfied that all nine children currently placed with Fresh Start are safe and that it will work closely with foster carers, children and their birth families to "transition" the nine placements from the fostering agency to its own services.
The State body says it was recently been informed that Fresh Start, a private residential and foster care service, had decided to cease its foster care service in the coming months.
It confirms today's report by HIQA that last September Tusla inspectors identified "a number of issues in the service" which prompted it to cease new placements with Fresh Start the following month.
Tusla says it also reviewed ongoing placements to ensure there were no risks to children already placed in the service.
Today the website of Fresh Start Foster Care Service is describing itself as "work(ing) in partnership with Tusla - Child & Family Agency, the children and young peoples' parents and families and other agencies, in order to promote the health, welfare and well-being of all children and young people placed in our care".
There is no mention of Tusla having ceased to make new placements with the company, nor can the general reader find any mention of the company's decision to close over the coming months.
