The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published a report on a children’s residential centre operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in the South West region. 

Earlier this year, HIQA commenced a programme of inspections focused on the safeguarding of children and young people living in children’s residential centres, and on how effective the leadership and management of each centre is at ensuring a rights-based, good quality and safe service. Each centre is assessed against the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres (2018), and this inspection was undertaken as part of this programme.

This was an unannounced inspection and took place between 8 and 9 July 2025. 

The inspection found that children were well cared for by a committed staff team who recognised their individual needs and promoted their rights to participate and be involved in decisions about their care during their respite stays in the centre. Children were provided with opportunities to learn life skills to keep themselves safe which were appropriate to their age and stage of development and there was an experienced leadership team in place to support the delivery of good-quality care to children. However, there was a need for an increased focus on safeguarding across some aspects of service delivery to ensure the service was fully up to date with best practice and training in this area. There was poor oversight and monitoring of restrictive practices and insufficient recognition of the impact of the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) on children’s right to privacy and dignity.

The inspection found that recruitment of staff was not consistently carried out in line with Tusla’s procedure on safe recruitment practices. In addition, the provider’s suite of policies and procedures guiding staff practice in children’s residential centres, and those relevant to safeguarding, had not been reviewed and updated as required.

Following the inspection, management submitted a satisfactory compliance plan to address the issues identified during the inspection. 

Note:

• HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality 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 advises the Minister and Tusla.