An inspection report on the foster care service provided by the child and family agency Tusla in Donegal has found there was good practice in the area of allocating social workers, but non-compliance in a number of areas including the completion of reviews for all foster carers.
The Donegal foster care service has a total of 132 foster care households and the Health Information and Quality Authority inspection found that all foster carers in the area were allocated to a professional qualified social worker and that a duty system was operated, whereby another social worker would be available to the foster family in the event that the allocated person was not available.
The inspection focused on recruitment, assessment approval, supervision and review of foster carers and found that four standards were substantially compliant but four were not.
The report said that improvements were required in the placement of children with relatives in an emergency, safeguarding, and reviews of foster carers.
HIQA said there was a lack of oversight of the implementation of risk management plans and not all adults who had significant contact with children in placements had the necessary An Garda Síochána vetting.
However, the report says that the Donegal service area has provided an action plan response to address the non-compliances which were identified in the inspection.
Tusla's service director for the West Region, Dr Aisling Gillen, said the inspection report "reveals an effective, child-centred fostering service in Donegal, where children's rights are respected and all children and foster carers have allocated social workers."
While HIQA found non-compliance in a number of areas including Garda vetting, Dr Gillen noted the report said they had received assurances steps were being taken to clear backlogs in these areas.
Dr Gillen said she was pleased to note that HIQA highlighted that "there were examples of very good practice in Donegal" and had acknowledged Tusla's work in addressing areas of concern.
