Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published 26 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 19 centres found a good level of compliance with the requirements of the regulations and standards. These included four centres operated by Muiríosa Foundation, three centres operated by Nua Healthcare Services, three centres operated by Peter Bradley Foundation Ltd, and four centres operated by Western Care Association.

Reports for nine centres operated by the Daughters of Charity have also been published. For three of these centres, inspectors found a good level of compliance with the regulations. However, inspectors found that the provider had not ensured an adequate level of compliance with requirements in six of the centres.

The report for one of these centres  operated by the Daughters of Charity was in respect to a triggered inspection in response to the increase in the number and severity of notifications from the provider relating to behaviour incidents. The inspector found that some residents were still experiencing peer-to-peer incidents of aggression and that there was a lack of clarity with regard to who was in charge. In another centre, the inspectors found that, despite residents clearly articulating dissatisfaction with the quality of some the services provided to them, their complaints had not led to a satisfactory solution. In a further centre operated by this provider, inadequate measures were in place to contain fire.

Inspectors found that residents had a good quality of life in another centre operated by the Daughters of Charity; however, the person in charge did not meet the requirements of the regulations. In a fifth centre operated by the Daughters of Charity, the premises were not suitable to meet residents’ needs. Another centre operated by this provider was found to have staffing levels that were not consistently maintained to meet the needs of some residents.

Three reports published refer to centres operated by RehabCare. A good level of compliance was found in two of these centres; however, for the other centre, governance and management arrangements were not adequate and failed to effectively respond to residents’ needs and issues of risk and safeguarding.