John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I proposed to take Questions Nos. 10, 49 and 56 together.

As Deputies will be aware, the National Quality Standards: Residential Settings for People with Disabilities, which relate to adult services, have been published by HIQA. Following a public consultation process initiated by HIQA, these standards were formulated by a standards advisory group which comprised officials from HIQA, the Department, the HSE, service providers, organisations representing people with disabilities and service users. These standards will provide a national framework for quality, safe services for persons with disabilities in a residential setting.

In light of the current economic situation, the move to full statutory implementation of the standards, including regulation and inspection, presents significant challenges at this time. However, notwithstanding the difficulties of immediate statutory implementation, the Department, the HSE and HIQA have agreed that progressive non-statutory implementation of the standards will now commence and that they will become the benchmark against which the HSE assesses both its own directly-operated facilities and other facilities that it funds. Discussions are ongoing regarding the development of self-assessment tools, providing awareness training for service providers and the introduction of an appropriate level of external validation for relevant settings.

A number of preliminary processes are already in place within the HSE to facilitate this work. For example, compliance with the HIQA standards is included in the service level agreements being implemented between the HSE and service providers. As part of the ongoing review of service level agreements, service providers will now be required to demonstrate compliance with the standards through the provision of audit outcomes. I am informed by the HSE that the majority of service providers have already commenced a review of their services within the context of the HIQA standards. Many service providers have also achieved external accreditation over the past number of years.

I am assured by the HSE that it has a robust system in place to deal with any complaints made in respect of the treatment of persons with disabilities in residential care. This includes ensuring that all HSE-funded service providers of residential care have appropriate complaints procedures that are in line with HSE policy.

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