Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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6. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will indicate the foster care placement ratio, that is the number of instances where foster care applications have been made compared to the number of successful placements, broken down by Health Service Executive region for 2012 and to date in 2013; if variances across regions can be adequately accounted for; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that backlogs in successful placements often mean suitable foster homes can expire from consideration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38727/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Approximately 92% of all children in care in Ireland are in the care of a foster family. This is very high by international standards and is a welcome situation. Almost 6,000 children are in foster care, of whom over 4,000 are in general foster care, with the remainder, some 2,000 children, with relatives.

In 2013, the HSE undertook a national foster care recruitment campaign because there are shortages of foster parents in quite a number of areas. The campaign was extensive and built upon previous local initiatives. There are currently 4,330 foster carers nationally, an increase of 61 since December last year. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to them for the work they do.

The HSE has advised me that it does not routinely gather the information sought by the Deputy. However, anecdotal evidence from Irish and international campaigns suggests that for every 100 inquiries, approximately six will go on to become foster parents. There is a variety of reasons for this, including people making general inquiries, inquiries not meeting the criteria and applicants deciding to opt out once they receive detailed information and training and the role of the foster carer is clarified for them.

I do not have the detail as to why those are the figures.

It would be interesting to see whether there is scope for improvement. If a person lifts a telephone to make an inquiry about becoming a foster carer, it shows that he or she has at least sufficient interest to commence the process. It does seems a very low outturn that only six out of 100 people who make an inquiry go on to become foster parents.

There is an assessment and training process to establish the suitability and competence of applicants. It is carried out by a social worker from the local fostering team and includes Garda vetting, internal Health Service Executive checks to establish previous involvement with child protection services, a medical assessment, personal interviews in the applicant's home, and further discussion. The Garda vetting process involves all members of the family. In short, applicants must undergo a rather onerous process before they can expect to be accepted as a foster parent.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Applicants are also asked to provide referees who will be interviewed by the social worker as part of the assessment process. The social worker then prepares a report which is shared with the applicant and includes a representation of the latter's view. This report is then presented to the foster care committee for approval, including a recommendation as to the age of the child and type of foster care suitable to the applicant. All approved foster carers are entered on a panel of approved foster carers.

When a child is being placed in foster care, the suitability of a placement with relatives is explored in the first instance. Where the HSE is satisfied that an immediate placement with relatives is in the interests of the child, such placement may occur before full approval of the committee is in place. Such emergency placements are provided for in the regulations. Prior to placement, the relative is assessed by a principal social worker, including early Garda vetting. This is followed by a full assessment and approval by the foster care committee as I have outlined.

The availability of foster carers and the provision of support for their role is the subject of ongoing work within the HSE. With the establishment of the child and family agency, further consideration will be given to the most effective arrangements for foster care recruitment and retention and the further development of information sources at national and regional level. Developments in this area will be further informed by the findings of Health Information and Quality Authority inspection reports into fostering services throughout the country.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I join the Minister in acknowledging the great work done by foster carers. Where a family situation breaks down, the best available option is generally another family placement rather than institutional care.

One of the reasons suggested to me as to why some foster carer applicants subsequently withdraw their name is that in some parts of the country the process takes a ridiculous length of time. In fact, I understand it can take up to two years before an assessment even commences. People will make an inquiry at a particular point in their lives, but their situation might be much different two years later. This logjam is apparently largely a consequence of the shortage of social workers throughout the country. We are essentially losing potentially good foster carer candidates because their generous offer is not being taken up in a timely fashion. In losing applicants from the system in this way, we might well be denying children an opportunity to live in a foster home, whether for a short-term or longer-term placement.

Another issue of concern relates to the thoroughness of oversight by social worker teams. I understand the average ratio of social workers to foster carers is approximately 1:15. In some parts of the country, however, oversight consists merely of a telephone call to the potential foster carer. That is storing up the types of problems we have seen historically in this country. It is not good enough to have a situation where oversight involves no face-to-face contact but merely a telephone call. Irrespective of whether or not the applicant is a family member - to give an example where it might be assumed that rather less oversight might perhaps be needed - we must always keep the welfare of the child front and centre. Will the Minister comment on how she intends to ensure the types of lengthy delays we have seen are reduced and that oversight is effective and reliable?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's points are well made. I recently discussed with Mr. Gordon Jeyes, chief executive officer designate of the child and family agency, whether the foster carer recruitment campaigns should be taken out of local areas and conducted instead on a nationwide basis. There is a real difficulty for social work teams who are under pressure dealing with referrals on a daily basis to have the time to manage a recruitment campaign effectively and conduct the necessary follow-up. My own view is that we need to take a different approach. The pressures on social worker teams are very real but, at the same time, we need to recruit more foster parents if we are to take the type of preventative approach to which the Deputy alluded. It is time to look at a new initiative in regard to how fostering campaigns are handled by the Health Service Executive and, in due course, the new child and family agency. As I said, I have had preliminary discussions with the CEO designate in this regard.

The Health and Information Quality Authority reports throughout the country are clarifying how different teams are dealing with these issues. It is clear that some are managing better than others. The report for Mayo, for example, which was published some weeks ago, found that due to limited social work resources, a decision was made by managers not to undertake child in care reviews and required reviews of foster carers within the regulatory timeframe. I was informed today that when an external consultant was brought in and the work was actually done, not one child was removed from the foster carers who were not previously examined. This is a good story in that it shows that even in an instance where HIQA highlighted concerns because a decision was taken to defer reviews, when those reviews were done the results were satisfactory and met the required standard. That is not, however, to take from the importance of meeting the necessary oversight requirements.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Another issue that is causing a particular problem, as I understand, is where social workers take maternity leave. The foster care placement initiative becomes almost the secondary issue because the primary concern is for children who are already vulnerable and where there is already a case load for the existing social workers. People who are brought in on contract, for example, do not have the same experience and cannot offer the same continuity of care as the social worker who has worked consistently with a particular child or family. That is another issue that must be addressed and is separate from the others I raised.

I would welcome anything the Minister can do to improve the situation whereby only six out of 100 people who make an initial telephone inquiry go on to become foster carers. The priority is to ensure children are not left queuing for a placement and that applicants are vetted in a timely but thorough way.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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What was the duration of the recent recruitment campaign? I am assuming, from the way in which the Minister referred to it, that it has come to an end, but it is not clear when it was launched.

Is a common methodology employed in the various local areas which operate the recruitment effort or what degree of commonality is there among them? Is it possible to establish out of the recent campaign whether there is a best practice among the varieties of approaches that might be employed? I am interested to hear more of the Minister's thoughts in terms of having recruitment organised on a State-wide basis rather than the local area approach.

Are the delays in obtaining Garda vetting a factor in the ordinate delays in processing applicant foster families and progressing their applications?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I will answer Deputy Ó Caoláin's questions first. The Garda vetting situation impacts on a whole range of Government activities, from job activation programmes to recruitment of social workers and child care workers through to recruitment, as we are discussing today, of foster parents. Forty additional staff have been allocated to the Garda vetting office in recent weeks and we are already seeing a huge improvement in waiting times. The average wait had been reduced to two to three weeks, which is where it ideally should be. The delays have certainly been an issue in terms of the processing of foster carer applications. Some commentators have raised the issue of multiple vetting and proposed that we should instead introduce a type of vetting passport which an individual could carry from one job to another. There are inherent risks in such an approach, but it might be worth considering in order to deal with the current delays. Child protection must of course be at the centre of all our decisions, but there is no denying that the delays in Garda vetting procedures have impacted on many areas.

There is a standardised approach to the assessment of foster carer applicants in the different local areas in the same way as there is a standardised approach to assessment for adoption. On foot of the Deputy's question, I will ask for a report on the outcome of the foster parent recruitment campaign. It will be helpful to see if and where there has been recruitment in different parts of the country and how that has been handled.

Deputy Murphy referred to the maternity vacancy issue. As I said, there are significant pressures on social worker teams throughout the country given the nature of the work, retention issues and so on. A very high rate of maternity leave among staff is also a factor. The ideal would be to have a panel of qualified people who could go in and fill vacancies so that the ongoing work could continue. If the fostering recruitment situation were to be dealt with at a national level, with local input, that might also address some of those issues.