Ms Catherine Bond:

I will be brief.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked about other models. There are good models in the United Kingdom in having clusters of foster carers. It is called the Mockingbird project, as part of which clusters of foster carers come together. Two or three foster carers provide respite care and it is a little like a wider family network. Where a foster carer needs support or there is a crisis, there is somebody whom the child knows to provide respite care. It is normal and natural. That is a good model that we should consider.

On the recommendations the committee could make on our behalf, we certainly recommend a review of national foster care standards. In response to Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire's question, there are national foster care standards, but they are set down in legislation and what we have is inherent in the difference.

HIQA monitors the implementation of the standards but there are recommendations for change. The national standards for foster care are now 14 years old and we will call for a review of them to take into consideration the vast range of Government policy change in the past ten years, taking in the rights of children; children's rights within the Constitution; Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures; and national well-being indicators for children. We could match the well-being indicators for all children and those in foster and residential care, and that would be very tangible work.