Care home in breach of fire safety regulations

A CARE home for children in Dublin has failed to comply with fire safety regulations since it opened in 2003.

The Health Service Executive has been warned to undertake an urgent review of fire safety procedures at the home following a recent inspection of the premises by the Social Services Inspectorate.

The bungalow where the children are housed has no certificate of compliance with building control or fire safety regulations. An inspection of the home four years ago found it had no fire certificate or written confirmation statutory requirements relating to fire safety and building control had been complied with.

A report of the most recent inspection, published last month, found there had been three serious fire incidents in the centre in the months prior to inspection. The centre manager had notified her superiors and the children’s social workers about the incidents but inspectors said “there was no follow-up comprehensive risk assessment of the incidents, nor was there a strategy in place in anticipation of a similar future occurrence”.

Yesterday, a statement from the HSE said the house was built prior to the building regulations coming into existence.

It added that all the other recommendations had “been actioned”.

The three-bed detached bungalow, which at the time of inspection was home to three children, opened in 2003.

During an inspection in 2003, inspectors were told since it had been intended the centre would not be in operation for longer than 12 months, with the exception of the manager, no HSE staff were employed. Agency staff were used instead. Four years later, inspectors found the centre continued to be staffed mostly by personnel from three different agencies. Inspectors recommended the staffing issues in the home, “including the inappropriate use of agency staff”, be addressed as a matter of urgency. The majority of agency staff did not have a qualification in child care.

On a positive note, at the time of the recent inspection, inspectors found evidence of good practice by a committed, caring staff team.

However, inspectors found agency staff were not trained in the use of restraint as part of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention programme, the only HSE-approved method of responding to crisis behaviour.

The inspectors said this meant the home was not compliant with HSE policy on behaviour management. The same finding was made in 2003.

The 2007 inspection found specialist services were available to those young people who required them but there was a significant delay in accessing psychiatric assessment, contrary to childcare standards. Inspectors recommended “this is reviewed as a matter of priority”.