Preparation For Home Placements:

Five Rivers Ireland maintains the philosophy that, where possible, children and young people should be cared for by their own families. Where this is not possible Five Rivers Ireland is committed to the view that attempts should be made to return children to their families. The preparation for home placements offers intensive support for foster carers and for birth parents for the duration of the placement and for an agreed period after the return home.

Relative Care Assessment / Support Scheme:

As an agency Five Rivers Ireland is seeking to work in partnership with the Health Service Executive. It is essential therefore that we work to compliment existing foster care services. This proposal involves creating a specific scheme to assist community care teams with the task of assessing and supporting relative carers. It is envisaged that this proposal could offer value for money to the Health Service Executive and that it may help to support and sustain relative care placements.

Specific Assessments Or Support Work:

Five Rivers Ireland has carried out an independent assessment of a Christmas period access visit for a Local Authority in the UK. In these circumstances, the Local Authority was considering placing two children with their grandparents in Ireland. The assessment involved monitoring a two week holiday visit over the Christmas period. Five Rivers Ireland is in a position to carry out such assessments. This may be useful where potential carers live outside of the community care area or where an independent assessment has been requested. The costings for such services are set on an individual basis.

Priority Access To Residential And Foster Care Services Of Five Rivers Child Care Ltd.

Five Rivers Ireland has a wide range of residential, foster care and educational services in the UK. As the service has been established for many years there is a wide range of placements available. At present, one young person from another community care area is placed at Beck House which is a singleton unit. This young person was placed in the UK because there were no appropriate services available in Ireland to meet his needs. This young person has thrived in his placement and has developed many new skills.

NOTE: The packages outlined above are all sample packages. Five Rivers Ireland is open to adjusting or developing the service to meet the needs of individual social work teams. As such, we are open to adapting or developing our services to ensure that the individual needs of children and young people are met.

Referrals

At Five Rivers Ireland we recognise that HSE Social Workers have high caseloads and are constantly under pressure to write reports / referrals etc. We have designed our referral process to take this into account and also to ensure that children’s private information is respected.

How To Make A Referral?

Telephone Five Rivers Ireland office or send an email / fax with a general enquiry.

A member of Five Rivers Ireland social work staff will ask a few questions about the young person being referred.

While doing this they complete the Initial Referral Form.

At this point you will be informed of any families that might meet the needs of the child / children being referred.

If a placement is identified then a more detailed Referral Form will be completed by the child’s Social Worker.

Five Rivers Ireland believes that it is essential to ensure that a good match is made. If we do not have a foster family available who can meet the needs of the child or young person being referred then a placement will not be made.

For further information please visit our website http://www.fiveriversireland.ie or contact us on 003531 866 5290

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