The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published 10 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 10 of today’s reports refer to centres operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE). Inspections in two of the centres found a good level of compliance with the requirements of the regulations and standards. One of these centres was found to be fully compliant at the time of inspection, with no actions required. Seven of the reports are for centres in the northwest of the country.

HIQA cancelled the registration of one centre under the Health Act 2007 on 29 March 2017. Following the cancellation, in accordance with Section 64(4) of the Health Act 2007, the HSE took over the operating of the centre. The inspection report published today contains the findings from the first inspection of the centre since the HSE took it over. Inspectors found that there continued to be major non-compliances in key areas such as ensuring the safety of residents through appropriate risk management and continuing deficits in the healthcare provided to residents.

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. While improvements were found in some of the HSE centres in the northwest, inspectors continued to find areas of non-compliance that were impacting on the residents’ quality of life in most of the centres.

In seven of the reports published today, inspectors found areas of non-compliance that were impacting the service provided to residents. The areas that required significant improvement included governance and management; staffing levels appropriate to the assessed support and care needs of residents, and fire safety. For example, some of the centres had insufficient fire safety arrangements in place to evacuate residents in the event of a fire.