Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 March 2012
54 Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has met with the Department of Health on the issue of expanding the Health Information and Quality Authority remit to include oversight of the Health Services Executive’s child protection services; and the date on which the HIQA remit will be expanded accordingly. [15126/12]
View answerThe Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) was established under the Health Act, 2007 and replaced the Social Services Inspectorate. HIQA is an independent authority responsible for driving quality, safety and accountability in residential services for children, older people and people with disabilities in Ireland. HIQA develops standards, monitors compliance with standards and carries out investigations where they believe there are reasonable grounds to do so. HIQA inspects children's residential centres, special care units and foster care settings against the National Standards for Children's Residential Centres, National Standards for Special Care Units and the National Standards for Foster Care. HIQA publishes their inspection reports on their website.
In July 2010, the Government decided to prioritise the inspection of child protection by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). These inspections will be undertaken against standards to be developed by HIQA as provided for under Section 8 of the Health Act 2007. HIQA commenced work on drafting National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children and convened a Standards Advisory Group to advise on their development. The Advisory Group, which comprises a wide representation of people from the health and social care sector met several times and continues to advise HIQA on the draft standards. My department has also been involved in advising HIQA. I understand that HIQA is to commence the public consultation on the draft standards today. The draft standards will then be amended based on feedback received from the consultation process and the final draft standards will be forwarded to me for approval. It is expected that the first inspections by HIQA based on the standards for child protection will take place by the end of the year.
