In October, we published a report detailing what residents of disability services told us about their lives, experiences and the inspection process.
During 2021, we met with 80 residents during 22 online meetings. These forums allowed residents to meet with us and share their views outside of the inspection process.
We recently attended an event to celebrate residents moving out of campus accommodation and into more suitable housing in their local community.
Engagement with providers of disability services is critical to our work as a regulator. We continue to hold provider representative forum meetings, and are running a series of roadshow events with providers and persons in charge across the country next month.
Earlier this week, we published an overview report on our inspection findings in residential centres for people with disabilities in 2021.
During the year, we carried out 1,220 inspections, finding that the majority of centres provided a good standard of care and support to people with disabilities. However, the findings highlighted increasing non-compliance with oversight and management of centres.
Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter.
Safeguarding people using services, and upholding their human rights, is a core component of what we do in HIQA. This is reflected in our 2021 Annual Report, published earlier this week, and through our work in the National Inpatient Experience Survey, regulation of disability services and the development of National Standards for Homecare and Support Services, as outlined in this issue.
We continue to inspect and monitor the governance and safeguarding arrangements in HSE services for people with disabilities in Co. Donegal to ensure the safety and wellbeing of people using services.
We have updated the Irish Database of Statutory Notifications from Social Care with the 39,335 notifications HIQA received from residential social care services in 2021.
The database is part of our LENS Project, which offers an open access database of statutory notifications received by HIQA from nursing homes or a residential centre for people with disabilities.
Last week, we appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters to discuss implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Our inspections and engagement with people with disabilities show that residents have better experiences when living in community-based settings, with their own space.
We have appointed two new members to our Executive Management Team to lead on the regulation of health and social care services in Ireland.
