Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) is celebrating the ninth International Care Day, the world’s largest celebration of the rights of children and young people with experience of care. This includes children and young people who were or are being cared for by family members with the support of social workers, foster carers, or children and young people from children’s homes and residential units.



Eva Boyle, HIQA’s Head of Children’s Services, said: “We are delighted to mark International Care Day, which offers us the chance to celebrate and recognise the care experiences of children and young people. The theme of this year’s Care Day is, ‘I am what I choose to become.’ We believe that every child should be empowered to reach their full potential and be given the support to determine their own future.



“At HIQA, we inspect children’s services to ensure that they are doing everything they can to support children and young people. An important part of this process involves seeking feedback from the children and young people to make sure their voices are heard. This plays a vital role in our work and is key to driving improvements across these services.” 



In Ireland, there are less than 6,000 children in care who are currently living with foster carers or in residential homes and about 500 children who leave care each year. HIQA works to support children in care by inspecting statutory children’s residential centres, foster care services, child protection and welfare services and special care units.



Care Day is organised by Empowering People in Care (EPIC), an advocacy organisation for children and young people who are currently in care or who have experience of being in care. To find out more about Care Day, visit the website. 



HIQA has also created a video to highlight the work we do to support children in care. Watch the video here.



Ends.



Further Information:



Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA

085 805 5202

mwhelan@hiqa.ie.