Ms Mary Dunnion:

I thank Deputy Colm Burke. I reassure the committee that all staff employed as inspectors of social services have qualifications in nursing, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy or social care services. These are the competency requirements at the point of interview. Thereafter, there is a 12-week induction programme for all newly appointed inspectors that covers all the relevant areas, including the legislative framework, the inspection process and the methodologies. As Mr. Quinn said, we will certainly ensure the Deputy gets that information requested if he has not received it already.

In the context of the Covid-19 outbreak, the specific training for our inspection staff that has been very targeted relates to the national guidelines from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, in the context of Covid-19 infection prevention and control. All our staff are trained in that area, and there is ongoing didactic learning and online learning. There is guidance and there is an assessment framework. In addition, we have run many webinars for nursing home providers and disability service providers and their staff. Those webinars covered all aspects of our infection methodology for infection prevention and control. As Dr. MacLellan said, there has been an increase in our number of inspectors. We have increased the number by a total of 12 in respect of the nursing home expert panel, and we are currently at the point of induction for many of those positions. That will increase our inspection activity, with focus on infection control in particular.

To answer the Deputy's question, we have an internal infection-control training programme. It is particularly pertinent to the HPSC guidance. We have had a significant number of webinars, with full attendance from all nursing home providers, on the application of that guidance.