MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney has questioned whether the Health Service Executive (HSE) is fully committed to achieving full compliance with its statutory obligations over foster care services by the end of this year. In a letter to the chairman of the HSE board Liam Downey on May 24th, Ms Harney said the executive needed to “urgently address” significant deficiencies in foster care services in Dublin and other parts of the country.
“I am sure you agree that the HSE has to ensure, at minimum, that it complies with its statutory responsibilities in relation to foster care as a matter of urgency,” Ms Harney wrote.
“I am not clear whether the HSE is committed to achieving full compliance with its statutory obligations by the end of this year and, if so, how that will be measured.”
She also said the HSE needed to be more proactive in identifying and managing risks facing vulnerable young children in State care.
The correspondence followed the draft findings of an investigation by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) into foster care services in parts of Dublin.
This investigation, formally published last week, revealed that services were “in a state of crisis” when they were inspected.
Among its findings were that child protection concerns relating to children in care had been ignored, while many young people had not had contact with social workers for years.
Letters released under the Freedom of Information Act show Prof Brendan Drumm acknowledged that services had fallen short of the required standard, but insisted in a letter on May 20th that all child protection concerns raised by Hiqa were either dealt with fully or were being addressed.
Apparently unconvinced by this explanation, Ms Harney wrote that in addition to focusing on failures in the Dublin area, it also needed to assure itself that services in other parts of the country met basic standards.
“The HSE needs to adopt a more proactive approach to the identification and management of risk and the transfer of learning from adverse events, both within the child welfare and protection programme and between programmes,” Ms Harney wrote.
“For example, the result of the national audit on foster care would suggest the HSE should establish whether it is complying with its statutory obligations in relation to other aspects of its services.”
Separately, other correspondence indicates growing frustration between Minister for Children Barry Andrews and the HSE over accurate figures for the number of deaths of children in care.
Mr Andrews wrote to the HSE in early March 2010 requesting a detailed list of children who died in care, or who were in contact with child protection services.
“It has proved difficult for me to get accurate information from the HSE about the number of deaths of children in care since 2000 and the types of cases involved,” he wrote.
“It is essential I have a validated list of all cases by April 9th.”
However, correspondence shows the HSE only appointed a manager to take full responsibility for compiling this list in late May and there was still confusion over what information was required.
On May 27th, Mr Andrews wrote to the chairman of the HSE and said: “I was concerned to hear yesterday that the HSE appears to be unsure as to precisely what information is required . . . prior to yesterday’s meeting, there had been no indication from the HSE that clarification was required”.
The following day, the HSE provided a figure of 36 deaths of young people who were in care and undertook to have a final figure – including young people known to child protection services – ready by June 4th.
This figure showed that a total of 188 young people in care or who were known to care services died over a 10-year period.
