Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their presentations. I am glad we are having this conversation because the voice of parents has been absent up to now. Even in terms of kin placements with foster carers, their voice is absent. Kin placements are a very different experience. I have experience of this, both personally and professionally, and I know how difficult it can be.

I wish to raise a number of issues, the first of which is the importance of the relationship between foster parents and birth parents. While my observations are limited in a sense, there does not seem to be a huge amount of work or effort done in this area. Sometimes I find that, although well-meaning, some social workers are not strong enough in the work they do to navigate those difficult relationships between foster and birth parents. Sometimes they fall into a trap of wanting to keep things settled. It seems sometimes that things being settled is the bar or that settled is enough. They do not talk about the other issues like origins, identity, future and so on. Settled is some sort of standard we need to meet. It gets to me when I am having conversations or am engaged in case meetings and the word "settled" is used a lot. I do not understand it because the conversation does not move to the aspiration of the child or the future of the child, the therapeutic interventions that are needed and so on.

Do our guests believe there should be more specialised mediation between birth parents and foster families so that there is open and clear communication? Sometimes they seem to be pushed as far away from each other as possible, into silos. From my experience, there seems to be the right to a veto on the part of foster parents in relation to visitation. They will report to the social worker that the child was a bit upset or uneasy and did not sleep very well after visits. This is all stuff that should be expected and is normal for a child in those situations but it is often used as a way to introduce stricter or more limited access. This can result in supervised visitation, based on the child being unsettled even though the situation is unsettling anyway. Should there be specialised training for foster parents? Is there a place for greater recognition of the fact there must be greater mediation and an onus placed on foster parents to work better with birth parents? Obviously there will be times when that is not achievable for whatever reason, but in the main, is it desirable?

I would like to loop those two points back to a point made earlier about life experience and turnover being an issue. My concern is that in many instances there is a lack of cultural appropriateness among social workers and advocates at all different levels. Years ago when I was helping in the addiction sector in relation to visitations, I saw social workers who came from very different backgrounds and all of the training in the world could not prepare them for a very loud, boisterous community. Often I saw social workers who were uneasy in situations and I asked myself what was wrong with them. People were boisterous, shouting up the stairs, kids were running in and out, something was going on out on the street and the community itself was just a bit hectic but it was a really normal situation. That bias, concern or idea that there was some sort of threat or something wrong was being imposed by services and social workers who do not culturally understand the environment in which they are working. This is also relevant in relation to Travellers and other minority groups, including those from different countries. Culturally, we are not set up to really understand the families we are working with.

Has there been any effort made to research or understand the impact of the professions? We have come to understand, for example, that the teaching profession is overly white, middle class and rural, but the same conversation does not seem to be happening in relation to social workers who are also predominantly white and middle class. If you have a conviction, and it does not matter what that conviction is, you cannot study social work, which rules out so many amazing people from working-class communities. That must be having an impact.

This is also relevant in the context of foster parents. What are the demographics of foster parents? Obviously the kin placements are a little bit different because those foster parents are usually coming from the same familial and environmental factors and conditions, which is better, in many cases, if it can be achieved. Is there an understanding in Ireland of the impact of professions that are overly middle class and white on the outcomes for children in foster placements?