HIQA in Residential Care: Learnings for International Protection Accommodation Services

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Introduction

International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) provide accommodation to people seeking asylum or international protection in Ireland. As these centres cater to vulnerable populations, it is widely accepted that regulation and monitoring of the sector is needed to ensure that services prioritise residents’ rights, health, safety, and dignity.

Consequently, it is noted in HIQA’s recently published HIQA Annual Report 2022, that regulation of the sector is swiftly approaching. HIQA commented that they have “undertook work and preparations to establish a regulatory function for the monitoring and inspection of International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS)”.

Given that HIQA are keen to progress the regulation and monitoring of International Protection Accommodation Services in Ireland, we prepared this blog as an opportunity to reflect on HIQA’s monitoring of other health and social care settings, in particular the residential care settings for older people. HIQA have been monitoring nursing homes since 2009 and as such there is a vast amount of learnings that can be taken from HIQA’s monitoring of residential care settings for older people which can be used to guide us in our approach to preparing for IPAS regulation.


Learnings from Residential Care Sector

HCI review the inspection findings of residential care centres for older people on a quarterly basis and publish these findings as a report. From our latest review we have identified the below areas of non-compliance which provide learning opportunities for IPAS.

Governance and Management

Policies and Procedures

Incident Management

Complaints Management

Risk Management

Premises

Fire Precautions

Training & Staff Development

Infection control


How can HCI help?

With the new regulation framework for IPAS comes challenges and opportunities for your organisation. HCI recognise that resources and knowledge of such a regulatory environment may be limited and so we are here to help reduce the burden of compliance. HCI has been working with health and social care organisations almost two decades, supporting them in building Quality and Safety Management Systems that fulfil regulatory requirements and drive improvement in their services.

HCI offer a number of services that will support you in preparing for regulation:

Gap Analysis against the National Standards for accommodation offered to people in the protection process

If you are interested in getting a baseline assessment of where you stand in terms of implementing the National Standards for accommodation offered to people in the protection process, then HCI can conduct a Gap Analysis of your service against the standards. We will provide you with a comprehensive report detailing the areas of good practice and areas for improvement, develop Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) to address areas of concern and support you to implement the QIPs.

If you would like any further information, please contact HCI on 01 629 2559 or info@hci.care.

Contact Us

For more information contact info@hci.care or Phone +353 (0)1 6292559.

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