Social Workers in Foster Care

Mary Flanagan

The Social Workers in Foster Care Special Interest Group of the IASW( SWIFC) is a professional body which aims to provide its members with a forum which will offer Social Workers in the area of Foster Care a professional platform to express relevant professional perspectives and to advocate on behalf of children in Foster Care.

SWIFC held its 2009 AGM on 15^th July at the Belfield Campus, UCD.

Reports from the Secretary and the Treasurer were followed by an open forum, at which issues of children’s rights, and the proposed Constitutional Referendum on the rights of the child, were discussed.

The role of SWIFC in informing policy and the importance of a professional voice to inform legislation, and the media were among the issues explored.

The election of officers for 2009/2010 also took place. The meeting expressed appreciation at the attendance of Ineke Durville, IASW President.

Over the past year SWIFC engaged in a number of significant activities. These included a meeting with the Minister of State for Children, Mr. Barry Andrews. The meeting addressed the implications of a proposed Constitutional Amendment on Children’s Rights and the nature of the current judicial process in meeting the best interests of children; the high numbers of children in care who do not have an allocated social worker; the growing high level of trauma in the current population of children in care and the lack of suitable venues and other resources for appropriate support and supervision of access arrangements for children in care with their birth families.

Arising from this meeting, the Group compiled a number of case examples from current social work practice, of situations where children’s interests and rights are compromised within the judicial process. 

SWIFC has drawn up a response to the Draft National Quality Standards for Residential and Foster Care, which aims to be constructive and informed.

The National Audit on Children in Care, recently completed by HIQA, is highly significant, and the Group is currently looking at the implications of these findings for practice and policy. 

The 2010 AGM takes place on the 22^nd April at 5pm in the Social Work Building in UCD, Belfield. It will be preceded by two research presentations on the topics of kinship care (Dr. Valerie O’Brien), and on court ordered access (Mr. Cahal McHale, SWTL). 

SWIFC looks forward to continuing its role in 2010 as the voice of social workers working in foster care and its related areas, and to working closely with the IASW.