The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an inspection report on a children’s residential centre operated by the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in the Mid West region.

HIQA is authorised by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Section 69 of the Child Care Act, 1991 as amended by Section 26 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2011, to inspect children’s residential care services provided by Tusla. HIQA monitors Tusla’s performance against the National Standards for Children’s Residential Centres and advises the Minister and Tusla.



HIQA conducted this unannounced inspection over two days in May 2023. The inspection primarily focused on the leadership and management of the centre and how effective they were in ensuring that a good quality and safe service was being provided to young people. Additionally, it focused on the care and support young people received and how their rights were promoted and realised. The inspection found that of the eight standards assessed, seven were compliant and one was substantially compliant. 



There were effective management structures in place. Staff and managers nurtured collaborative working with other professionals to strengthen the support networks who worked with and for the young people transitioning from care. The centre experienced challenges in not having a full staff team; however, this was mitigated against by the introduction of measures to reduce the number of young people the service could cater for to reflect staffing capacity.



Staff and managers had a good understanding and knowledge of young people’s rights and how their rights were promoted in the service. Young people were made aware of their rights and their dignity and privacy was respected. Staff promoted a culture of working in partnership with the young people in the centre and provided a mentoring programme that focused on empowering them to develop the skills to enable them to transition from care to independent living as young adults.



Improvement was required in the area of knowledge and understanding in the management of risk that included indicators of child exploitation related to drugs in order for the centre to effectively respond to and reduced these potential risks. Safety planning was not effectively used to understand and respond to the nature and level of risk possibly faced by young people where indicators of child exploitation were present; this meant that the possible risks were left unknown. 



Areas that required improvement included: developing the centre’s admission process to nurture the social development of young people already living in the centre and those new to the environment; the response to the contextual safeguarding of young people where indicators of child exploitation may be present required a stronger management response; and not all placement plans identified or addressed all of the potential concerns regarding the associated possible risks.



Following the inspection, management submitted a satisfactory compliance plan to address the one standard deemed substantially compliant. 



The inspection report and compliance plan can be found at the link below.