Ms Bernadette Neville:

On behalf of the Irish Foster Care Association, IFCA, I am grateful for the invitation to address the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth this afternoon on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Child Care (Amendment) Bill, 2023. I am accompanied by Karen Cahill, co-ordinator of IFCA's national helpline service.

The Irish Foster Care Association is the national organisation that supports foster families and the wider fostering community. We advance and promote best practice in foster care through support, learning and advocacy. We believe in a society where the importance of fostering is recognised, valued and supported. We support foster families and the fostering community through the provision of a spectrum of supports, namely, the national helpline; national advocacy and counselling services; learning and development, including publications on research and best practice in foster care; support to foster carers involved in local branches and hubs; and an annual conference which brings together the wider fostering community, including children in care and the children of foster families.

I acknowledge and commend the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth on the extensive consultation process it engaged in, beginning in 2017, to which IFCA provided a written submission in 2018. It is encouraging to see the value placed on hearing and including the voices of those involved in the lives of children requiring safety and protection. On reviewing the proposed changes, I note the child is consciously being placed front and centre in the decision-making process, which enables children to be more visible and supports his or her engagement and participation, and that learning from policy and practice developments since the introduction of the Child Care Act 1991 has been identified and integrated into the Bill. I note also the value being placed on transparency, accountability and inclusivity in the delivery of practice.

At the end of January 2023, there were 5,597 children in care, 64% of whom are cared for by general foster carers, with 25.9% cared for by relative carers. Currently there are 4,124 foster carers comprising general and relative carers. Caring for children who have experienced harm, neglect and abuse in the context of their primary and formative relationships is extremely challenging. The fostering task is often made more complicated and stressful by structures and practices within the care system which, at times, are experienced as being at odds with the care philosophy.

When we think about the supports and changes required to meet the needs of children in care, we also need to have in our minds the families who open their hearts and homes to children with traumatic life stories and complex needs. Although foster carers are not directly involved in the processes whereby children are received into care, the child’s entry into the system and their experience of this travels with them into the home of the foster family and can influence the child’s readiness or capacity to engage with the foster family. If their entry experience has been poor, this can be an added complicating factor impacting on the stability of the placement.

Today, I offer a practice perspective which will help us think about the proposed changes from the viewpoint of children in foster care and foster families. When considering the effectiveness of services, we often ask what difference the service or supports have made. This helps us to evaluate and determine impact. I will apply this measure in my assessment of the most significant changes identified in the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2023. The insertion of a set of guiding principles into the Act is to be welcomed. These will ensure the decision-making process adheres to the best-interest principle, where the voice of the child is sought and heard and where the child is visible in proceedings. IFCA believes the involvement of children will improve the quality of decisions made. The naming of the factors to be taken into account by the courts in assessing and making a determination on the basis of the child’s best interest, and which must be applied by those working with children, is important in developing a shared language and understanding among the network of professionals and services working with, and advocating for, children.

IFCA welcomes the requirement for decisions relating to children to include a consideration of the capacity of the placement to meet the child’s needs. This is very important in light of the current shortfall in the availability of foster families. With the pool of foster carers decreasing, the ability to match a child and have the best fit possible with the right foster family for the child is a real challenge. IFCA supports and values decision-making which is informed by a questioning of the impact on the child of professional decisions made regarding their placement with a foster family. This is extremely significant and to be welcomed. Our experience from supporting foster carers dealing with placement breakdowns leads us to have concerns that the impact of a change in placement on children is not always fully considered. We know that with every experience of placement moves, the chances of success in subsequent placements diminish, leading to poorer outcomes for children. The challenge in meeting the best-interest principle will be in its translation into practice, in particular how practitioners engage in meaningful conversations with children and seek their views in a child-centred way.

The current difficulties retaining social work staff means that some children in care experience multiple changes in social workers. This does not allow for the development of a relationship in which children feel safe and where they trust the adult to communicate their thoughts and wishes. The one constant is often the foster carer who has a relationship with the child. Social workers seeking the views of children need to consider involving foster carers as an enabler to supporting the child to participate in the decision-making process. This may be particularly the case for neurodiverse children who need additional support to be enabled to actively participate in the decision-making process.

Children enter the care system in one of two ways, namely, via a voluntary arrangement where parents give consent for their child to be received into care or via the court system in the form of an order granted by the courts. In 2021, 520 of all admissions into care were voluntary admissions, with the remaining 442 being made on foot of an application to the court. We are, therefore, seeing slightly more children come through the voluntary process. Of concern is the manner in which voluntary agreements are allowed to drift as there is currently no oversight structure and review of these. IFCA’s practice experience is supported by research conducted in Ireland by Brennan, O'Mahony and Burns in 2021 on voluntary care arrangements. I strongly urge members to review this research as it draws attention to the inherent weaknesses of the current system such as loose regulation; weak mechanisms for ascertaining the views of children and promoting child participation; unlimited duration, and lesser safeguards than provided by court-directed orders. The overall message is that children in voluntary care arrangements fare worse than children on care orders. This is hugely concerning.

The current Bill proposes some changes to voluntary arrangements which are to be welcomed. Specifically, it recommends that voluntary care arrangements be reviewed at regular intervals no less than every six months. The Bill does not go far enough, however, in terms of the safeguards required to ensure good oversight. It could be strengthened in line with the recommendations of the Brennan, O'Mahony and Burns report, with a limit being placed on the duration of voluntary care arrangements; a limit on the amount of times the agreement can be renewed; having formal reviews before the expiry of the agreement, with a review of the care plan to take place alongside this; and for children to have access to independent advocates who participate in the reviews.

It is positive that an information pack is suggested which will help children and parents understand the purpose and proposed duration of the voluntary care arrangements, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the Child and Family Agency. It will be important that this information pack is constructed in such as way that the information is accessible both to children and their parents, that there is a child friendly version and that parents and children are supported in understanding the process in which they are engaged.

Legal parental responsibility for the child in care is held either with the birth parents or the Child and Family agency but the day-to-day activity of parenting is carried out by the foster carer. Irrespective of the legal care status of the child, foster carers have no automatic legal power to consent to medical treatment or for the ordinary everyday activities of children’s lives, such as school tours and the making of passport applications. However, there are provisions whereby foster carers can apply for enhanced rights if the child has been in the care of the foster carers for more than five years.

The current system, however, is impractical for children in long term care with the same foster family. IFCA welcomes the proposal to reduce from five years to three years the amount of time a foster carer is required to have been taking care of the child before an application for enhanced rights can be made. It is imperative that foster carers are made aware by the Child and Family Agency of the steps required to secure enhanced rights and are actively supported to engage in the process.

IFCA notes the intention to place the current practice of assessing and managing allegations, as set out in the child abuse substantiation policy, CASP, on a statutory footing. CASP has been in operation since June 2022 and is still being experienced by foster carers as a new and different approach. It is positive to note that an independent review of the implementation of CASP is currently under way. We ask that the learning from the review be taken into account to inform and strengthen best practice around the management of allegations against foster carers.

In conclusion, when we improve the structures and systems around the child, we enable foster carers to do what they do best, namely, to love, care and attend to the child who has joined their family. Although there are many positive improvements embodied in the Bill, in order to realise the potential of children and foster carers it is important to support and enhance approaches to working with them, strengthen oversight and have review systems in place to evaluate the continued impact of the changes.