Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published 15 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 15 reports published this morning are for centres operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE). Thirteen of these reports relate to centres in the northwest of the country. Inspections of two centres in other parts of the country found a good level of compliance with the requirements of the regulations and standards.

Of the 13 HSE centres in the northwest, two centres were found to be delivering care and support to residents in line with the standards and regulations, with areas of non-compliance satisfactorily addressed in action plans. However, inspectors found non-compliance in 11 of these centres.

While inspectors found evidence of improved quality and safety of care in the majority of these centres, major non-compliance was found in the area of workforce in all 11 centres. These centres lacked evidence of An Garda Síochána (police) vetting for all staff and had incomplete staff records, such as full employment histories on file, as required by regulation. This failed to assure inspectors that residents were appropriately safeguarded against risk.

Furthermore, there continued to be poor oversight and management in one centre which had been issued with a notice of proposal to cancel the registration of the centre on 30 November 2017. The HSE’s representation in response to this notice had not been fully implemented on this inspection, and this was having a negative impact on the service provided and the quality of care delivered to residents. However, since this inspection the provider has taken additional actions to improve the overall quality of this service and this centre has now been registered.