Written answers

Tuesday, 17 December 2013

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Foster Care Provision

Photo of Sandra McLellanSandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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90. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her views on the recent report of inspections of foster and children's residential services; the discussions she has had with Health Information and Quality Authority in this regard; the implications of the report; the number of foster and residential facilities found to have standards of hygiene and cleanliness below the minimum standards expected; her plans to address these shortcomings; and the steps she will take to improve the situation in these centres. [53847/13]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Currently HIQA inspects foster care services against the National Standards for Foster Care, residential services against the National Standards for Children's Residential Services and HSE child protection services against the National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children.The HIQA inspection process raises both specific local quality improvement changes and also contributes to corporate learning regarding the provision of these services.

I welcome the publication of The Overview of findings of 2012 children's inspection activity: foster care and children's residential services last July. This report outlines common themes found by HIQA inspectors when inspecting these services and provides a valuable overview of the ongoing work required to bring children and family services to a standard of quality care and practice. It recognises the improvements made to date and that many children in residential care and foster care receive a good standard of quality care.

The report highlights the fact that while many residential centres have appropriately qualified staff who are committed and dedicated with interventions that led to positive outcomes for children in their care, the system still faces many challenges and further improvements are required. In relation to foster care the report found that foster carers provided good quality care to children and young people. While it noted there were few young people waiting for a foster care placement, there were some difficulties accessing appropriate placements for children with complex needs and in a child's local area..There were no negative findings in relation to hygiene and cleanliness standards in residential care or foster care.

I, with my officials have regular ongoing discussions HSE and HIQA to address inter alia issues arising from inspections of services and to ensure that measures are put in place to improve services as necessary and that learnings from these inspections are widely disseminated across the services. As the Deputy may be aware, the legislation to establish the new Child and Family Agency (CFA) was enacted recently. My Department will continue to work with HIQA and the CFA to drive improvements in children's services.

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