Tusla seeks to recruit more emergency foster carers in Cork
Cultural Tusla Backgrounds Families Different Image Difficulty Said Particular And Was One Stock Recruiting From Ethnic
Tusla has said it will be targeting the recruitment of more foster carers after a Hiqa report found there was a shortage of emergency foster care placements in the Cork area.
The inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority found there were not enough foster carers to respond to children who needed to be admitted to care in an emergency.
"Inspectors found that the service area’s capacity to match children to foster carers best placed to meet their individual needs was severely compromised, with indications of high and increasing pressures on the service in recent years," it said.
It led to further meetings with Tusla senior managers and with relevant regional and national directors to address the problem.
Kate Duggan, Tusla's national director of services and integration, said: "One of the most significant challenges we face as an agency is the number of foster carers we have available to us, right across the country, not just in the south."
She said a recruitment drive last October led to expressions of interest in Cork from 39 families, but she added that one particular difficulty was recruiting families from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds — something that can help with the quicker placement of some children in an emergency situation.
"We absolutely will take a child where there is an immediate risk and for their safety but because of the delay in seeking foster carers, there might be a delay of a couple of hours or they might be placed or move once or twice or three times to get a suitable placement," Ms DUggan said.
The Hiqa report found much evidence of good practice in the Cork area but also highlighted long delays in child-in-care reviews taking place, with a significant backlog in one social work department. It also said there were "significant shortfalls" in visits to children by social workers.
Tusla said these issues were already being addressed.