Over the coming months, we will be commencing a series of meetings with resident forums in disability services across the country to hear about their experiences of living in these services. We are also planning virtual events for service providers and managers later in the year.
On International Day of Persons with Disabilities in 2020, we published the Disability Services Resident Forum Meetings report, which detailed what residents told us was important to them in their homes and about their experience of the inspection process. The report depicts the findings from 18 resident forum groups during 2019 and 2020. A poster which summarises what residents told us has been sent to all designated centres, along with a letter which outlines the actions that HIQA is taking as a result of what residents told us.
While we are unable to meet face to face with residents this year due to COVID-19, we are holding virtual meetings with resident forum groups over the next few months. All service providers have been asked to invite residents to express their interest in participating in the 2021 resident forum meetings. This year, we would like to hear from residents who live in congregated settings or residents who have moved from congregated settings to houses in the community, with a view to understanding residents’ experiences living in these services.
Each year, we usually undertake a series of roadshows to provide an opportunity to engage with providers and persons participating in management outside of the inspection process. Due to the pandemic, this was not possible in 2020. However, we are now planning for virtual roadshows towards the end of 2021. We will use our learning from the regulation of centres to inform the agenda of those roadshows. In addition, we have invited members of the Provider Representative Forum to submit suggestions from their organisations for consideration. The Provider Representative Forum currently meets with HIQA monthly and has delegates from the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers, the Disability Federation of Ireland and the National Disability Services Association.
Furthermore, we are engaging with respite centres and centres for children with disabilities across the country to ask them to provide detailed information on the services that they are providing.