There are concerns about the quality of foster care in Dublin south central. It's after a report by the Health Information and Quality Authority showed Tusla's foster care services in the area met only 1 of 26 standards.
The announced inspection outlined 5 significant risks. They include safeguarding and child protection, assessment and reviews of foster carers and making sure they're trained properly. It also judged that management was crisis led rather than well planned.
It found there was no system in place to ensure all staff were vetted along with Tusla's own recruitment policy.
The report shows that while all children had a social worker, a number had been through several changes of social worker in a short time which affected their relationships with them. Assessments of foster parents were done to a high standard, but were taking too long to complete.
A separate assessment of the Care Visions fostering service found that management and monitoring services need to improve to ensure the safety of kids.
It added that though the service told HIQA there were no child protection issues in the past 2 years, 4 were found after reviewing files. None of these incidents had been referred to the relevant social worker departments.
In a statement, Care Visions said it "fully accepts the findings" and says an Action Plan is now in place "to comprehensively address each of the requirements identified."
Cathy Jamieson, Managing Director at Care Visions Group, said the group "regrets that it did not fully adhere to the national standards in a number of categories" and is "confident" the Action Plan would stand up to a re-inspection.
