The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an inspection report on a children’s residential centre.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs 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 for Children and Youth Affairs.

An unannounced inspection of a statutory children’s residential centre in the Dublin Mid-Leinster region, took place on 9 and 10 July 2020. The inspection found that there was good levels of compliance with the National Standards and children were well cared for.  

Children who talked with inspectors said that the centre was a nice place to live as it was peaceful and quiet. Children talked about how they got on well with staff and spoke about how the staff team cared for them. Children were satisfied that they were consulted and had their voice heard in relation to decisions about their lives. The centre was good at preparing young people to leave care, however, not all young people wished to have services involved in their lives once they were out of care. 

Each child had an allocated social worker, and children were happy with the level of contact they had with their social worker. Effective arrangements were in place to maintain contact and plans were in place for these children’s care, despite the limitations on services due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The centre was well managed on a day-to-day basis, and the systems in place ensured good oversight and monitoring of practice. This promoted a learning culture and a drive towards continuous improvement. Managers were responsive to the needs of children and the centre during the Covid-19 pandemic, which meant that the delivery of care was not interrupted during this period. 

Safeguarding practices were good and children were kept safe during their placements, and responses to risks posed to individual children were well managed.

Read the report on www.hiqa.ie