Sir, - I refer to recent media reports and to your Editorial (July 31st) concerning the plight of children in care and the lack of suitable places for homeless and/ or troubled children.
There are 3,300 children and young people in State care and of these 2,800 are in foster care. There are about 2,000 foster families quietly and confidentially providing foster care around Ireland. There is great reliance on foster care as the mainstay of the care system. Many of the children placed with foster carers are very troubled and need a lot of support to understand why they are in care. Many also need therapies for which they can wait for many years. Foster carers themselves need access to a 24-hour support service, respite, social work visits and on-going training to help them to cope with and understand the complex needs of the children being placed with them.
Social workers who work in the foster care service have very heavy case-loads, which in turn means they cannot give the level of support required by foster families and the children placed with them. They spend much of their time trying to find fostering places in an ever decreasing pool of foster carers.
Mr Justice Kelly has done a very good job in highlighting the shortcomings of the current care system. Children coming into State care must have their needs assessed and met by a range of care options.
However, in their efforts to meet Justice Kelly's directives, our concern is that the Department and the Health Boards do not redirect funds from the foster care service which, for too many years now, has been underfunded and undervalued. - Yours, etc.,
Pat Whelan, National Co-ordinator, Irish Foster Care Association, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16.