The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published 27 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.

Thirteen of today’s reports refer to centres operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE). A good level of compliance was found in one of these centres in the East of the country. In another centre, residents told inspectors about their positive experience of the service, but inspectors found that improvements were needed in such areas as social care. In a third centre, inspectors found that there had been improvements since the previous inspection but there continued to be non-compliances relating to the premises and a requirement to further improve safeguarding arrangements.

Ten reports are for centres operated by the HSE in the North West of the country. A significant level of non-compliance was found during these inspections, which included the areas of social care needs, safeguarding, health and safety, governance and workforce. Due to the level of non-compliance across this HSE area, the chief inspector met with the national management team of the HSE at the end of 2016 to raise concerns about the overall governance and quality of services in the North West area. The HSE was required to submit an improvement plan for these services, and HIQA is closely monitoring the implementation of this plan to ensure that it is effective in improving the quality of life of people living in those centres.

Reports on nine centres run by Brothers of Charity Services have also been published. Six of the centres were found to provide a service that, in general, met residents’ needs. While inspectors found areas of non-compliance in three centres, inspectors noted that residents had a good quality of life in two of the centres and, in the third centre, the provider had made significant progress in addressing the issues that had been identified on the previous inspection.

Five of the reports published today are for centres run by COPE Foundation. While inspectors saw examples of the provider supporting some residents to achieve a good quality of life in these centres, there were also significant non-compliances in areas such as governance and staffing levels.