News
10th National Child Protection and Welfare Social Work Conference
On the 24th of October 2025 Dr Maria Lotty (UCC), Lisa McCormack (TUSLA), Niamh Campbell (TUSLA) and Dylan Stanley (TUSLA) presented at the 10th National Child Protection and Welfare Social Work Conference, which took place in UCC
. Their presentation titled ‘Transforming foster care practice: Sharing innovative practices that drive children’s right to stability in foster care’ provided an outline of new practices which were developed and are being implemented as part of the TARA Project by practitioners working in the Dublin South Central (DSC) Fostering Team, TUSLA- Child and Family Agency.
The practices were designed to support the right of children who are unable to live with their family with alternative care that is continuous and preferably in family-based care (Harlow, 2022; UNCRC, Article 20).The presentation focused on two new practices presented by the developers (practitioners from DSC): that are The TARA Case Review, and the TARA Toolkit (Lotty, McCormack, Campbell and Stanley, 2024). These are innovative practices that promote collaborative practices with professionals and foster carer/s. In parallel, they aim to support developing the foster carers’ understanding of developmental trauma; provide a holistic overview of the child’s lived and living experience; how trauma impacts the child/ren’s physiological and psychological development; its contribution to presenting dysregulated emotions and behaviours; the child’s difficulties with relationships; and to explore the drivers behind behaviours. This aims to support more sensitive responsive foster caring that supports stability in foster care for the child.