Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to address the committee on foster care services. I pay close attention to the committee's work, which is relevant to the work of my Department. The committee has recently heard from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, , Empowering Young People in Care, EPIC, and the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA on the issue and I have also received a very timely report on foster care from the Irish Association of Social Workers. The challenges in providing high-quality foster care services in a complex environment have been discussed at length in this committee. I am aware the committee recently had a presentation from Dr. Geoffrey Shannon on the audit he carried out on the application by An Garda Síochána of section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991. The audit report raised important issues about emergency child protection services both for the Garda and Tusla. I am fully committed to addressing the issues raised in a timely way and have worked with Tusla and Dr. Shannon to develop an implementation plan for Tusla services.

Foster care is the preferred placement for children who cannot, for whatever reason, live at home with their families. We have made a lot of progress in the foster care service provided here. Of all the children in care in Ireland, 92% are in foster care, compared with 74% in the UK. In Ireland, the 8% of children who are not placed in foster care are placed in children’s residential placements or in specialist disability centres. This compares very well with other countries in the western world and we should acknowledge this. Sadly, as a country, we were known for poor institutionalised care for children. This is no longer the case. We are now to the fore in placing children in family care. We cannot and will not be complacent.

Twenty years ago foster care was, in the main, for younger children or older children who presented with few challenges or intensive needs. Children who needed additional care were usually placed in residential care or they simply left care in their mid-teens. Tusla now aims to place and keep these children in foster care. Tusla has been doing well in providing family care for separated children seeking asylum. This is also the case for children who have suffered severe abuse or trauma. The reach of the service has been pushed out to accommodate more children in a greater variety of circumstances. This is the greatest evidence of our break with the past in terms of how we look after children in the care of the State. As we bring more children into family placements rather than institutional care, we expose weaknesses in the system. I will be the first to acknowledge these weaknesses. It would be foolish in the extreme to do otherwise. HIQA does a very professional job as regulator. We need it to point out when our system is not working and we need it to confirm when it is working. That is its job. It serves our children and our country very well. We need more social workers to recruit and support foster carers. Some progress is being made on this. There was a lengthy exchange on the subject when the CEO of Tusla appeared before the committee recently. We need better ways to make sure all the proper checks are in place for safe and proper placements for children that need them. The experience children have in foster care in Ireland is generally positive. We know this from the detailed HIQA inspections of all areas in the past three years. Inspectors found that the vast majority of children were safe, happy, attending school and in stable placements. This is reassuring for me, as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and for the public who need to know the standards set for foster care in Ireland are generally being applied.

HIQA is now revisiting all Tusla foster care services and focusing on the problems it identified in its first round of inspections. These are mainly concerned that the necessary checks and balances are in place and monitored by the Tusla foster care committees. This is critical to ensuring that problems are identified and addressed at an early stage. Constant and effective monitoring should be a matter of routine in our foster care services. Follow-up is necessary to ensure remedial action has been taken. I wrote to HIQA regarding the concerns and received a response yesterday. I welcome HIQA’s timely response but I need time to study its reply properly before responding.

During its inspections to date this year, HIQA has identified ongoing issues of planning and service governance as needing improvement. This includes having enough of the right type of placements in the right locations to meet the wide range of children’s needs. It also includes ensuring that foster carers receive the support and supervision needed out of hours, as well as during office hours, to assist them to continue to provide good-quality care. The foster care system does a very good job but it is not perfect. There are serious challenges to be met, but I hope that the members of the committee are reassured to know that the vast majority of children in foster care are receiving safe bespoke care. This is evidenced by education attendance and stability of their placements.

Our foster carers are the backbone of the foster care system. They take children into their homes and also, I believe, into their hearts. They provide what children need, namely, sanctuary in a crisis situation and loving care and stability on a day-to-day basis. This might last for a short while until a family situation is resolved or it may evolve into a long-term placement lasting until a child becomes an adult at 18. Finding foster carers who are interested and able to meet the particular needs of individual children or sibling groups, which is called matching, is a vital foundation for a successful placement. Foster carers need support and this is especially true with more complex placements. Tusla plans to offer 24-hour support to foster carers and is currently engaged in negotiations with staff unions on the matter.

I will turn to the recent report by Dr. Shannon on section 12 of the Child Care Act. The report on the application by An Garda Síochána of section 12 of the Child Care Act 1991 is very useful in highlighting the experiences of children where the Garda has been obliged to intervene. These can be in situations of alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence and the impact of serious parental mental health problems.

The report also highlights the different challenges faced by gardaí when they are dealing with older teenagers in dispute with their families who are asked to leave the family home.

The report has identified issues for Tusla to act on. To this end I have put in place a clear plan to move forward on addressing the recommendations for Tusla from the report. My action plan, agreed with Dr. Shannon, highlights the importance of greater inter-agency work between Tusla and An Garda Síochána. Dr. Shannon’s report points to serious gaps in mutual understanding and practical co-operation at local level. We must address this. A strategic liaison committee co-chaired by the CEO of Tusla and the Garda assistant commissioner responsible for child protection is in place. This committee has an important role in addressing the recommendations on co-ordination made in Dr. Shannon’s report. My Department has been in contact with the co-chairs seeking implementation of the relevant recommendations.

I understand from Tusla that the extended service put in place in late 2015, where the Garda has access to a national social work out-of-hours telephone service, has led to improved communication between it and the Garda. Gardaí ring this telephone line for advice and guidance. If they decide to invoke section 12 in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and Cork, social workers, on duty 24-7, meet directly with the gardaí and bring the children to the appropriate placement. In other areas of the country gardaí are provided with information about suitable foster care or residential placement for the child.

Having enhanced the out-of-hours service, Tusla gathered performance information for 2016 that showed the out-of-hours demand by area, the reason for contacting the service and by the age of child. The data showed that, across the country, just over 40% of children who were the subject of referrals to out-of-hours services were received into care, either foster care, relative foster care or residential care. In other situations, following the gardaí discussing the referral with the social worker, the child may have gone to a relative or neighbour or, indeed, back to his or her own home if the threat to his or her safety left. For example, in a situation of domestic violence if the aggressive partner left the home, the child could remain with his or her other parent, with a follow-up by Tusla in office hours.

There was a variation in the ages of the children referred to Tusla emergency out-of-hours services across the country. In 2016 in the greater Dublin area, half of the 856 children referred by the Garda were under 12 years of age. In the rest of the country more older children were involved, with 32% or 174 under 12 years of age and 43% or 240 children aged 16 and 17 years. In some instances a child, especially older children, could be referred more than once.

Tusla continues to engage with staff unions to bring about an improved service. Further improvements are planned for this year. These include: extending the on-call social work service in order that a social worker will attend, in person, with the gardaí, in cases across all areas of the country where section 12 is invoked by An Garda Síochána; making the out-of-hours telephone support available to all foster carers; consolidating the existing three co-ordinated out-of-hours services into a single national service; this will be accessed by a single Tusla out-of-hours contact number, with additional staff allocated to underpin the improvements. It is planned to roll out these improvements in the late autumn. I am examining what further improvements are necessary to ensure we have a responsive, child-friendly out-of-hours service.

My Department and Tusla are examining the legal and policy position relating to the use of public and private providers of emergency accommodation for children who are removed from their families under section 12. I am in contact with the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, on a number of the drug and alcohol related issues raised in Dr. Shannon’s report. Alcohol and drugs are detrimental to family life. I agree with Dr. Shannon that as a country we must wake up to this reality. I requested that Tusla commission independent research about what happens when a child is placed into the custody of Tusla by An Garda Síochána. This will examine the decision making process, for example, why a decision is made to place a child in care or why it is decided to return a child to the family home. It will also examine the child’s experience. For me, this is the logical next step to Dr. Shannon’s report, and I look forward to this independent research, which I believe will be very helpful.

Tusla children’s services need a significant staff injection. I am fully supportive of Tusla in funding the range of improvements it has identified as necessary. The most important of these is allocating social workers to children who need them. Employing and retaining the numbers needed will take time as our graduate numbers do not appear to be sufficient to meet current demand. My officials are working on a range of options with Tusla managers on this important matter.

To conclude, I am ambitious for our foster care services. We have committed foster carers who have stepped up to the plate for our children who cannot remain in their own homes. I recognise that and I will support them as we continue to expand and continually improve our foster care service.