Formal Investigation

Ms Brown and her partner, Mr Murphy felt that they and the children had been unfairly treated by the Board both in August 2001 and again in 2002/2003. They complained in writing through the Board's complaints process in the matter. As they were not happy with the extent and outcome of the Board's examination of their complaint, the couple contacted my Office towards the end of 2003.

Following the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children in April 2004, all new complaints relating to the welfare of children made after that date are proper to that Office. Complaints made prior to that date fell to be investigated by my Office. My Office's approach to the complaint focused primarily on the actions of the Board and how these had affected the couple.

Following a preliminary examination of the issues, which included in-depth discussion with the couple and the submission to me of a detailed report by the Chief Executive Officer of the Board, I decided to initiate a formal investigation of the complaint, as I considered that there was prima facie evidence of maladministration in the Board's handling of the issues.

The first step entailed the forwarding by my Office of a Statement of Complaint to the Health Board. During the course of the investigation, members of my staff interviewed a range of health board personnel who had been involved in the case. These included:-

• the General Manager (who had administrative responsibility for the area),
• the Child Care Manager (who was responsible for quality assurance at local level and advised the General Manager in respect of child care and family services, but who was not responsible for social work services),
• the Principal Social Worker (who reported to the General Manager and to whom the Team Leader reported),
• the acting Principal Social Worker (who had been Social Worker to the children's late mother),
• the Team Leader (who supervised the Social Workers and reported to the Principal Social Worker),
• the acting Team Leader,
• the Social Worker for the children, and the Social Worker who replaced her,
• the Social Worker for the children's aunt and uncle,
• the fostering assessment social worker for the couple.
• My staff also interviewed officials from the Child Care Policy Unit within the Department of Health and Children.

The evidence which was obtained during the course of these interviews was analysed by my staff, in conjunction with the Statement of Complaint, under the various headings included in that Statement. These included:-

• the nature of the placement,
• the original fostering assessment arrangement and the decision to purchase a house,
• the resignation of Ms Brown from her job,
• the lack of formal assessment of the couple prior to placement,
• lack of contact with the couple following the breakdown of the arrangement,
• concerns expressed by the couple as to the children's safety,
• the delay by the Board in conveying the ultimate decision to the couple not to pay them an enhanced allowance in 2003 following a second approach them to foster the children.

Drafts of the information or evidence obtained during the course of the interviews were forwarded to all interviewees in the Health Board, and their comments were included, where appropriate, in the draft Report.

This draft Report, which included a list of my findings, was sent to the Health Service Executive (HSE) corporate (which replaced the health board system in January 2005) for further observations and acceptance. My final Report, which I presented in July 2005 to the Health Service Executive contained the following findings: