The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published 21 reports on residential services for people with disabilities. HIQA inspects against the Health Act 2007 (Care and Support of Residents in Designated Centres for Persons (Children and Adults) with Disabilities) Regulations 2013 and the National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities, which apply to residential and respite services in Ireland.

All 21 of today’s reports refer to centres operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE). One centre was found to be fully compliant with the outcomes inspected against and no actions were required.  Inspections in six centres found a good level of compliance with the requirements of the regulations and standards. 

Fourteen of the reports relate to centres operated by the HSE in the northwest of the country. In December 2016, in response to findings of high levels of non-compliance and poor standards of service for residents in a range of HSE centres in the northwest, the HSE National Director was required to submit a governance plan to the Chief Inspector of Social Services in HIQA. That plan set out how the HSE was going to ensure that the quality of service provided to residents in this area would be improved. HIQA has been undertaking a programme of inspections to verify whether the actions taken have been effective in improving the quality of life for residents in those services.  

Inspectors found that three of these HSE centres had made significant improvements since their previous inspection.  

However, the quality of service in the other centres continued to impact on residents’ safety and wellbeing. The areas that required significant improvement included safeguarding and safety, staffing levels, fire safety arrangements and an absence important staffing documents which indicate that the staff are suitable to work in services for people with disabilities. For example, a number of the centres did not have the required Garda Síochána vetting for their staff. Furthermore, in one centre the measures in place to safeguard residents from peer-to-peer abuse were inadequate.