The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an overview report of the inspection and regulation of designated centres for people with disabilities in 2024.
HIQA inspectors carried out 1,042 inspections in disability services last year which found that the majority of centres provided a good standard of care and support to people with disabilities. The report highlights a reduction in non-compliance across services for people with disabilities in 2024. In addition, 82% of inspections found that staff had received training in human-rights based care.
The report outlines concerns over poor findings in relation to governance and management in a number of settings and details the action taken by HIQA’s Chief Inspector of Social Services to drive improvement.
Commenting on today’s report, HIQA’s Interim Deputy Chief Inspector of Social Services (Disability), Ciara McShane, said:
“By the end of 2024, there were 1,655 registered centres offering 9,246 residential places. The number of centres continues to increase year-on-year, and we have predicted further growth over the next five years. In such an expanding sector, strong regulatory oversight is essential for ensuring service providers continue to deliver safe, effective and high-quality care. In situations where we find non-compliance is impacting on the quality and safety of care for residents, we use our regulatory powers to take enforcement activity to drive improvements in care. In 2024, 20 different centres were issued with a notice of proposed decision to cancel their registration. The majority of these centres made improvements as a result of this, but five centres had their registration cancelled with the HSE taking over operations on an interim basis.
In 2024, a focus of our inspections was on ensuring residents’ human rights were upheld. We asked providers and staff working in services about how they embed a human rights-based approach in their services. This valuable information was captured throughout our inspection reports and aimed to highlight good practice and learning across the sector in upholding residents’ rights. We also continued to hold our Resident Forums, where we engage with residents of services outside of the inspection process, in more informal settings to gain their feedback.”
To mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, HIQA has launched an accessible video that explains its role for people with disabilities in Lámh, a manual sign system used by children and adults with intellectual disability and communication needs in Ireland. The video can be viewed here.