High-support unit for children in care to close
Staff at the Rath na nÓg unit in Castleblaney in Co Monaghan told Hiqa inspectors the policy of closing external doors at the unit from 9pm to 7.30am was ordered by the national director of children and family services, Gordon Jeyes, along with the acting national director of the national high support and special care services.
The report adds: “However, the inspectors found no evidence of any written record of this directive.”
Frances Fitzgerald, the minister for children, confirmed yesterday that Mr Jeyes had met with Hiqa last month to advise them of his decision to close the unit next month.
Ms Fitzgerald said she was “concerned” by the report’s findings and had asked Mr Jeyes for a full report.
In the inspection report, Hiqa said children were not safe from bullying and assaults within the Rath na nÓg unit and frequently left the unit without permission. Yet the plan to reduce the number of abscondments by closing the external doors at night did not work — there were 33 instances of children leaving without permission in the three months before the policy was introduced, and 34 instances in the three months after it was brought in.
Hiqa had to launch an immediate action plan at the unit — currently home to two children — after a review identified immediate risks to the safety of children and young people there, primarily due to fire risk.
The immediate action plan was triggered following the unannounced inspection in July, but Hiqa revealed that even after the inspection on July 25/26, two fires broke out at the facility, one of which needed the response of the fire brigade.
Yesterday the HSE said the centre would close in November “in line with the service’s national policy to decommission high-support units and increase the service’s capacity of special care services”.
Later the HSE said the practice of locking the front door at 8pm is replicated in other high support units, with 24-hour staff cover.
The unit opened in 2002 and caters for children aged 12 to 17.
The report also found that strategies to manage children’s behaviour were not working, with increased incidences of self-harm that led to hospital admission, children going missing, bullying others and threatening and assaulting staff.
Physical restraints had been used on 10 occasions over the preceding six months, often with Garda assistance, and since January children had gone missing on 97 occasions, with 84 of those categorised as “absent at risk”.
The director of EPIC (Empowering People In Care), Jennifer Gargan, backed the decision to close the unit and said children had been unsafe in Rath na nÓg, but the Irish Association of Social Care Workers (IASCW) said it was concerned and criticised Hiqa for not elaborating on its criticisms.
* Full report at Hiqa.ie
