The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published its annual overview report detailing its findings in children’s social services. The Overview Report on the monitoring and regulation of children’s social care services 2024 highlights the findings of HIQA’s inspection, regulation and monitoring of children’s residential centres, special care units, foster care services, and child protection and welfare services operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) as well as at Oberstown Children Detention Campus. 

Across all services inspected, HIQA found that when children were allocated a social worker or other care worker, the quality of service delivered to them was strong. Overall, good levels of care and support were found across children’s services, with children and young people telling inspectors about improvements they had seen and how services were supporting them. However, challenges remain in the sector relating to the resourcing of services, from recruiting and retaining staff to sourcing suitable placements for children in care to live in.

HIQA’s Head of Programme for Children’s Services, Eva Boyle, said:

“While the results of our inspection and monitoring activity show encouraging progress, they are a pertinent reminder that improvement is a continual process. One of the most significant barriers to improving children’s services is the ongoing difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled staff. Without a stable workforce, it becomes harder to provide consistent, high-quality care and to respond effectively to the needs of children and families. Addressing these workforce challenges must be a priority to ensure that children and their families have access to the right care at the right time.”

The report captures the feedback and experiences of children and young people. It also details how it is increasingly apparent that there is a need to urgently build in additional capacity within children’s alternative care services (foster care, children’s residential centres and special care units) in order to ensure that there is a range of appropriate regulated placement types available to meet children’s specific needs. Some children are currently living in unregulated Special Emergency Arrangements and, while HIQA has no legal regulatory remit regarding these centres, it has consistently expressed concern about children and young people being placed in such arrangements that are outside of its regulatory remit.

Eva Boyle concluded:

“Expanding our regulatory remit is an important step toward creating a more consistent and robust system for children’s services. We welcome our ongoing engagement with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and Tusla to progress this work, which will strengthen oversight and drive improvements across the sector. Our shared goal is to ensure that every child in care benefits from a safe, high-quality service that prioritises their safety and wellbeing.”

The report has been published alongside a summary report created specifically for children and young people using social services which details the inspection process, the findings from inspections carried out in 2024 and highlights what children and young people told HIQA about their experiences of using services throughout the year.  

ENDS

Further information:

Zoe Forde, Communications Manager, HIQA
085 802 1469, zforde@hiqa.ie 

Notes to Editor:

• The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) is the independent body that promotes safety and quality in the provision of health and social care services in Ireland. HIQA’s roles in regulation, standard setting and providing evidence to inform decision-making, support health and social care services to consistently deliver excellent standards of care and the best possible health and social care outcomes for all.
• Under the Health Act 2007 (as amended), HIQA is responsible for inspecting and monitoring the safety and quality of children’s social services in Ireland to ensure they meet national standards and relevant regulations. HIQA has legal powers to regulate special care units (high-security residential centres for children aged 11 to 17). HIQA does not have legal powers to regulate or inspect other children’s services; instead, it monitors the compliance of these services against specific national standards. These services are: foster care services run by Tusla and other providers; Tusla’s child protection and welfare services; statutory children’s residential centres (only operated by Tusla and not private or voluntary centres); and Oberstown Children Detention Campus.  
• The 47 inspections carried out in 2024 included inspections of statutory children’s residential centres, special care units, statutory foster care services, child protection and welfare services, and Oberstown Children Detention Campus. These included:
  • 25 inspections of Statutory Children’s Residential Centres
  • 10 risk-based national inspections into the governance and management of child protection and welfare foster care services
  • 5 inspections of Special Care Units
  • 3 inspections of Child Protection and Welfare services
  • 3 inspections of Statutory Foster Care services
  • 1 inspection of Oberstown Children Detention Campus.
• A Special Emergency Arrangement refers to emergency settings where a child or young person is accommodated in a non-statutory and or unregulated placement (for example, a Hotel, B&B, Holiday centre, Activity centre, Tusla property or privately leased property). The child is supervised by Tusla staff, or staff provided by a private provider, or community and voluntary provider (or combination of those). The overall responsibility for the child remains with the placing service area and region.
• During 2024, HIQA conducted a risk-based programme of inspections across 10 Tusla service areas where at least 25% of children had not been allocated a social worker in child protection and welfare and or foster care services. Overall, HIQA found that some children were being left at potential risk due to failures at operational level to consistently implement Tusla’s national policies and processes. The full findings of this inspection programme were published on 17 January 2025.
• When serious concerns or risks are identified, HIQA escalates these risks directly to the Chief Executive Officer of Tusla or the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality as appropriate.