administrative process. Inspectors recommend that interviews are undertaken with all carers leaving the service as a mechanism of acquiring insight into the role of foster carers and challenges they experienced. This approach will also inform the strategy for the retention of foster carers. The HSE South Area had not undertaken a review of recruitment campaigns or retention strategies in order to assess their efficiency and effectiveness. Such a process would help to inform the HSE South Area and the FRU in the recruitment of carers for particular children or levels of need. Inspectors were told throughout the inspection that foster placements for teenagers, children with disabilities and non-national children were urgently required. There was no evidence found that a specific strategy or approach was in place to source families to meet the identified need. Inspectors noted that there was no evidence as to the exact needs in the areas. Inspectors were concerned that when children were placed with relative carers and awaiting assessment, they were not assigned a fostering social worker. In some instances relative carers were not recommended to the fostering approval committee as relative carers but continued as carers and were not assigned fostering social workers. Thirty-four carers in the HSE South Area were categorised as relative carers, however, they were not assessed. Inspectors found this situation to be unacceptable and unsafe. The HSE South Area was in the process of developing a strategy to assess these relative carers. Inspectors were provided with information on specific cases where children were placed with relative carers in other local health areas. Inspectors found that in some instances arrangements with other local health areas existed to ensure access to training and support to the relative carers. Examples were also provided where support and training was offered by the placing local health area. In the four local health areas inspected in the HSE South, inspectors were told by social work department managers that private companies were used on some occasions to provide foster care placements. One area cited the placement of a child for one week with a provider. Another area indicated that three children were being considered for placements with a private company and approval was given by the HSE senior management for these placements. Private foster companies were contracted to provide specific services when foster care placements were unavailable from within the HSE South Area foster care services. Inspectors were also told by social work department managers that the capacity of the private companies to provide a tailor-made service for specific identified needs was quickly available. The HSE nationally had contracted to a non-statutory provider the provision of
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