The Annual report of the regulatory activity of the Health Information and Quality Authority: Children’s Services 2014, published today, covers statutory children’s residential centres, statutory foster care services, child protection and welfare services, designated centres for children with disabilities and the country’s detention schools.

HIQA inspectors placed particular emphasis on children’s rights during the 2014 programme of activity and met with and heard from a total of 202 children across a range of care settings. The Authority is committed to ensuring that children’s rights are upheld, particularly those in the care of the State.

While the overview report published today highlights areas where it is believed these rights may have been breached, it also highlights findings of excellent child-centred practice. Information about their rights was readily available to children, they participated in their care planning meetings, were supported in accessing their records and making complaints if they were unhappy. Practice in relation to managing, recording and resolving complaints was generally of a high standard.

Significant variation in the performance of the Child and Family Agency services have been found in the Health Information and Quality Authority analysis of its regulation and oversight of children’s services during 2014.            

Commenting on the report, Mary Dunnion, HIQA’s Director of Regulation, said: “HIQA is concerned about the inconsistencies in the safety and quality of children’s services nationally. As a result of these inconsistencies, the Authority is concerned that national and local management systems may not be adequate in providing assurance on consistently safe, good quality services, robust quality assurance systems, effective information systems and effective risk management processes. As a result of these findings through our local inspection processes, the Authority will commence a national review of governance of the Child and Family Agency in 2015.

“Data provided by the Child and Family Agency and our inspection findings revealed significant variation in the performance of the Agency in the different service areas. For example, there were long waiting lists for initial assessments by social workers in four out of the five service areas inspected, but there was no waiting list in the Kerry service area when inspected. Similar discrepancies were found in the numbers of children waiting for allocation to a social worker.

“In some areas, children waited for significant periods of time before the level of risk to which they were exposed was assessed or until their cases were allocated to a social worker. This issue was escalated as a serious concern to the national senior management team in the Child and Family Agency.”

Notwithstanding, the HIQA overview also shows that the Child and Family Agency had made progress in improving some of its services. Standardised processes were further embedded in child protection and welfare services and some much-needed policies introduced. It had also moved to a new service model to coordinate the provision of welfare services, which HIQA views as a welcome development. However, the provision of welfare services was inconsistent across the country and some areas were under-resourced to provide such a service.

Findings showed that some designated centres for children with disabilities were challenged in meeting the requirements of the regulations. Of the 65 inspections carried out in disability centres, escalation and enforcement issues were taken in 15 services, while eight had immediate action plans issued to them by the Authority. These related to health and safety concerns in the centres. There were also concerns about poor medication management, inappropriate placements of children and poor management of some centres. Two notices of proposal to cancel registration were issued due to concerns about the fitness of the provider to provide safe care to children. During 2014, the Authority also assessed and registered eight centres for children with disabilities.

Many children in both residential and foster care were well cared for and inspectors found examples of excellent child-centred practice, including seeking children’s views and ensuring that they were kept informed and involved in decision making. Children told inspectors they felt listened to and made informed decisions with the support of their social workers.

Some children in both foster care and residential care presented with behaviour that challenges, but services were not always able to meet their needs.The Authority remained concerned about the restriction of some children’s liberty in both of the two services in the country in which they may be legally detained, namely the detention schools and the special care units. The Authority found that there were many positive practices but areas of concern remained.

Mary Dunnion concluded: “During 2014, there was some evidence of improving services and good practice in children’s social care. The Authority believes that there are particular responsibilities for all agencies and organisations in providing care and support to children. We will continue to monitor all these services using standards and regulations, and will work together with providers to promote improvement in the safety and quality of services to vulnerable children and young people.”

Further Information: 

Suzanne O’Brien, Communications Manager, HIQA
01 814 7488 / 087 624 1216 sobrien@hiqa.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

At the end of December 2014, there were 6,463 children in care in Ireland. Of these, 325 children were in a residential placement, 6,011 were in foster care and the remainder were in other care placements. Sixteen children were in special care placements. During the year, 40,000 children were referred to the Child and Family Agency’s child protection and welfare services.

During 2014, HIQA’s children’s team carried out 111 inspections across a range of services, which included inspections of residential services, foster care and child protection and welfare services. The children’s team monitored and regulated these services delivered by a number of different providers in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

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