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 East region.

In 2025, 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 over two days in December 2025. Of the seven standards assessed, HIQA found that five standards were substantially compliant and two were not compliant.

Young people living in the centre presented as relaxed and engaged positively and appropriately with staff. Their privacy was respected and they were encouraged to maintain relationships with friends and family, who were made welcome in the centre. Staff had a good awareness of their responsibilities as mandated persons and their responsibility to report child protection and welfare concerns. 

However, HIQA found that recruitment of staff was not consistently carried out in line with Tusla’s procedure on safe recruitment practices. Young people’s engagement in education needed further support, as they spent significant time in their rooms alone and not in a day programme. Communication in the centre needed improvement to ensure staff were informed of young people’s plans and to highlight any risks. While management had oversight of young people's daily activities in the centre, improvements were needed in record keeping to demonstrate learning, information sharing and improvements in practice. 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 HIQA, which outlined plans 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 a children’s residential care services by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla). HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres and advices the Minister and Tusla.