The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA)  have begun a period of consultation on draft standards for residential services for children and adults with disabilities. This is the second time there has been consultation on standards in this area with the previous draft published in 2009 without implementation.

HIQA say that the standards set out a vision as to what people can expect from good quality residential services. There are 31 seperate standards proposed for both children’s and adult services and each standard has examples of features that service providers (public, private and voluntary) will be expected to demonstrate not only in inspections but also in terms of service provision agreements and complaints by those living in services, families and advocates.

There is no confirmation of a date when the standards will be implemented or about the budget required for inspections and also service delivery which will meet the standards.

The consultation is open to all interested parties and full information is available on the HIQA website in many formats. (A short video from HIQA is included below)

Responses are invited online and in other formats – hopefully current and former service users and their connections will also be able to contribute. The closing date for responses is November 21.