Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1949. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of foster carers in counties Louth and Meath that have never been reviewed; and if these reviews have now been completed. [28567/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1950. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of foster carers in counties Louth and Meath that have not been reviewed in three years or longer; and if these reviews have now been completed. [28568/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1949 and 1950 together.

Under Standard 17 of the National Standards for Foster Care providers are required to ensure that foster carers participate in regular reviews of their continuing capacity to provide high quality care and to assist with the identification of gaps in the fostering service. The recent themed inspection by HIQA of foster care services in Louth and Meath found that Tusla were non-compliant (major) with this standard. HIQA found that over half of foster carers had not had a foster care review for more than three years. It should be noted, however, that while not constituting a formal review, all foster carers had an assigned link worker with responsibility to provide supervision, training and support to foster carers.

Tusla have undertaken the following actions to address the findings of the HIQA inspection:

- 1.A comprehensive schedule of foster care reviews has been devised to ensure that all foster carers are reviewed by March 2018. This schedule will be reviewed at the Quality Assurance & Oversight Group which is chaired by the Area Manager.

- 2.The Foster Care Committee (FCC) will have an increased role in the oversight of foster care reviews. The schedule of reviews has been provided to the FCC Chair who will monitor the submission of the outcome of reviews. The FCC Secretary has included a tracking system for all foster care reviews which will ensure that all foster carers who are reviewed and new foster carers will have an agreed date for review.

- 3 The review schedule will be carefully monitored by the Principal Social Worker (PSW) and the Area Manager, and a tracking mechanism is now in place on the foster care register with regard to reviews. The recommendations made at reviews will be tracked during supervision between Team Leaders and Link Social Workers. Where the progress of the recommendations are not advanced, this will be brought to the attention of the PSW and in turn the Area Manager.

Tusla has informed me that, at the time of the HIQA inspection, there were a total of 118 families without a review in place for over three years. Tusla have given a firm commitment that all reviews will be carried out by March 2018. The Louth/Meath area will also provide three-monthly updates to HIQA on the progress of these reviews, with the first review submitted on 7th June. Since the HIQA inspection a total of 27 reviews have taken place. A schedule is in place to complete the remaining reviews by the March 2018 deadline.