Mr. Tony O'Donovan:

With regard to the development of national policy, policy is percolated down to Oberstown. The area of most concern that HIQA raised concerns the procedures in implementing the policy. In Oberstown, there has been a lot of work since the issuing of the HIQA report on policy and procedures development. I refer to the policy and what needs to be done. There are now many more operational procedures for staff concerning what they should do. These include the review period. In other words, if a young person today is separated from the group, for whatever reason, there is a certain level of management involvement within the first two hours. If it goes beyond two hours, there is another level of management involved. It goes from unit manager to deputy director to director. Moreover, because of the new structures in place, we now have a deputy director who is specifically responsible for care services. We have another person for staff development and health and safety. We have allowed staff more access to directors on a 24/7 basis, as the Minister said. There are systems in place. Either there is a director or deputy director on campus or available at the end of the telephone line. Therefore, if there is a review to be carried out, it is carried out much quicker than it was heretofore. For this reason, there is much less drift, meaning the case of a young person who is separated is more likely to be approached straightaway. The ideal is that if a young person is separated, for whatever reason, he or she is given a timeframe for discussion. The discussion is had and, based on that, the risk assessment is reviewed, a decision is made on whether the person may come out and join the group again, go out to exercise or meet his or her family.