The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published 21 reports on residential services for people with disabilities. HIQA inspects against the Health Act 2007 (Care and Support of Residents in Designated Centres for Persons (Children and Adults) with Disabilities) Regulations 2013 and the National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities, which apply to residential and respite services in Ireland.

Inspections in seven centres found a good level of compliance with the requirements of the regulations and standards. These included centres operated by Steadfast House Residential Services and Riverside Residential Service.

Nine of today’s reports refer to centres operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE), of which five are in the North West of the country in HSE CHO Area 1.

Following a review of compliance across the Health Service Executive (HSE) CHO Area 1, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) raised concerns with the HSE National Director, in relation to the significant and on-going levels of non-compliance in centres operated by the HSE in CHO Area 1.

The HSE were required to submit a plan to HIQA which described the actions the HSE would take in order to improve the quality of life for residents living in the services in CHO Area 1, the overall safety of the services operated by the HSE in that area and to improve and sustain a satisfactory level of compliance across the five core outcomes of concern. In December 2016, the HSE submitted a governance plan to HIQA. The plan described the enhanced governance and leadership arrangements and actions that the HSE intended to take by 13 June 2017 in order to improve the overall levels of compliance and quality of life for residents in CHO Area 1.

The five inspection reports published today for services in HSE Area CHO 1 were undertaken to monitor the HSE’s overall delivery of this plan. While one centre provided a service that, in general, met residents’ needs and another centre demonstrated improvement, three of the centres had shown deterioration in the overall quality of services, with a significant level of non-compliance found during inspection.

In the other four centres operated by the HSE, the provider was required to take action to address issues in areas such as the premises not meeting the needs of residents and provision of a model of care that was institutionalised.

One of these centres, located in Kerry, had previously been issued with a notice of proposal to cancel the registration of the centre. Following representations made by the HSE, a further inspection was completed to follow up on the actions the provider had said they would take to bring the centre back into compliance. During this inspection, the centre was found to be in continued major non-compliance with the regulations. Inspectors found that residents were not safeguarded by appropriate practices in the centre and the provider was found to have failed to protect residents from the risk of abuse. Inspectors found that the provider was reliant on restrictive practices and had failed to adequately and appropriately assess the use of these in the centre.Overall, there were poor governance arrangements in the centre.

Three of the reports published today are for centres run by Sunbeam House. A good level of compliance with the regulations was found at two of these centres. However, significant safeguarding issues were identified at the other centre.

Three reports were also published for centres operated by St John of God Services. Two of these centres provided services that, in general, met residents’ needs. In the other centre, while the inspectors were satisfied that the healthcare needs of residents were very well supported, concerns were identified with the way in which some risks were managed.

In a centre operated by Waterford Intellectual Disability Association, significant improvement was needed to ensure that residents would be evacuated from the centre. In a centre operated by the Cheshire Foundation, concerns were identified in relation to the cleanliness and overall state of the premises. In a centre operated by St Michael’s House, improvement was needed in relation to containment of smoke and fire. Furthermore, while improvements were noted in the service provided by St Patrick’s Centre Ltd (Kilkenny), more progress was needed.