Social care

Social Care Standards

We are the independent authority responsible for driving quality, safety and accountability in residential services for children, older people and people with disabilities in Ireland.

We have produced standards to protect vulnerable people of all ages who are receiving residential care services and to ensure that these people are receiving an appropriate standard and quality of service.

Our standards tell people using these services and the people providing them what their services should be like. They also tell the public what they can expect from these services. Where we have statutory powers to inspect and register services, our inspectors will inspect against our standards.

Standards for residential services for older people

We have produced Standards for residential services for older people, including nursing homes and we inspect against these standards to ensure safe and quality care is provided.

Standards for children’s services

We monitor a range of services for children and young people against various standards:

• We inspect against National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres to ensure safe and quality services are provided to children who live in care. We also inspect Special Care units, which provide intensive support for children in a secure facility. We are currently reviewing the standards for special care units.
• We inspect against National Standards for Foster Care to ensure children in foster care receive high quality services.
• We inspect against National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children to ensure that the HSE is providing safe and quality services to children and their families who
• Children’s detention schools are inspected annually against Standards and Criteria for Children Detention Schools

National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities 2013

We have developed National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities which set out what a good quality, safe residential service for children and adults with disabilities should look like. The standards have been mandated by the Minister for Health, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality & Mental Health. We will begin registration and inspection against these standards when the relevant part of the legislation passes into law later this year.

Further information

Please see frequently asked questions for further information on our social care standards. To find out more about inspections, see our section on how the inspection process works. If you are a service provider, please see our providers section to find out how the standards effect your organisation.