Lack of Inspection of residential centers continues

Nearly 400 children with an intellectual disability are in full-time residential places where there is no inspection of quality of services being provided and no inspection of the wellbeing or health of these vunerable children.More than 500 other children attend residential places on a part-time or occasional basis.Welcome standards for residential services were published by HiQA in May this year following pressure from disability advocacy groups. Independent inspection of residential services is urgently required to protect these children, undoubtedly many examples of best practice will be discovered but the lessons of the Ryan Report tell us that we cannot 'trust' that all service providers will meet the standards required.