Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published two inspection reports on children’s residential services. HIQA monitors services used by some of the most vulnerable children in the state against the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres to provide assurance to the public that children are receiving a service that meets the requirements of quality standards, and to provide advice to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Child and Family Agency (Tusla).

These reports refer to two unannounced full inspections of residential services (centre ID numbers 4202 and 4167) in the West and Dublin Mid Leinster Tusla service areas. Inspectors found a good level of service was being provided to these children. Children felt safe, well cared for and supported and they spoke positively about the care they received from the staff. Children’s rights were promoted and children were involved in decisions about their care. Each child had an allocated social worker and care and placement planning were in place. Children participated in their care plan review meetings and understood their placement plans and were supported to develop independent living skills. There was appropriate and effective communication between the staff and the children’s social workers. The staff teams demonstrated that they provided a quality service in meeting with inspectors and clearly communicated their commitment to the children.

Both centres had appropriate safeguarding arrangements in place. Staff were appropriately trained in Children First (2017) and demonstrated a good knowledge about safeguarding and child protection practices. Staff worked effectively with social workers, children and their families to promote the safety and wellbeing of children. Complaints, concerns and incidents were appropriately recorded, reported and responded to, but records were not consistently signed off by staff or managers. However, in one centre, not all staff could access the Tusla portal to report concerns. This IT issue had been escalated locally and was in the process of being resolved and management had structures in place to ensure prompt reporting.

There were effective governance and management arrangements in place for both centres, with clear lines of authority and accountability. Management and staff had good knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations and national standards. Appropriate mechanisms were in place to monitor and evaluate the quality, safety and continuity of care provided to the children. The centres had external line management systems in place for auditing and monitoring the centre’s compliance with national standards which were effective.

Improvements were required in relation to the supervision of staff in one centre as this did not occur on a regular basis and was not in line with Tusla’s policy. Inspectors found that, when supervision occurred, it was of good quality and focused on discussions about the children and what they required, about staff wellbeing and training opportunities.

Centre practices in general were not supported by national policies and procedures. While practice in the centres reflected recent significant changes in legislation, guidelines and the introduction of the new national standards, Tusla’s suite of policies and procedures for children’s residential centres had not been updated since 2010.