The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published two inspection reports on children’s residential centres.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, under Section 69 of the Child Care Act, 1991 as amended by Section 26 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011, to inspect children’s residential care services provided by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla). HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres and reports on its findings to the Minister.

Unannounced inspections of two statutory children’s residential centres were carried out between 15 and 23 November 2021, across two Tusla’s West and Dublin North East regions. The findings of these inspections were positive and there was a good level of compliance with the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres.

Inspectors found that the two centres provided good quality care to children, and both were well-managed services. Children were consulted about decisions relating to their lives, including the development of plans to support some children to transition into young adulthood and out of care. Children told inspectors that they felt safe and this was a finding of both inspections. 

Both centres had been recently refurbished to a high standard and the children were happy about this. While levels of compliance were high for both centres, some areas of improvement related to a gap in one centre’s statement of purpose, and the centre manager was awaiting guidance from Tusla’s national office to address this. Although the standard related to staffing was met for both centres, there were a number of vacancies and recruitment drives in place to fill vacant posts. Agency staff were employed to ensure adequate staffing levels in both centres. 

The inspection reports and compliance plans (where required) can be found at the link below.