Housing crisis 'delaying' transfer of people with disabilities into community settings

People with disabilities are more likely to experience a better quality of life in community settings, Hiqa says.

Health watchdog Hiqa has warned of a "slowing down" in the transfer of some residents living in congregated settings to community houses due to the ongoing housing crisis.

A delegation from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) was addressing the Oireachtas Disability Committee, with chief inspector Carol Grogan saying she was "slightly disappointed" with the pace at which people were moving from congregated settings to living in the community.

Speaking about Hiqa's overview of 2021, Ms Grogan said: "Hiqa found that people with disabilities living in congregated settings were more likely to experience a poorer quality of life, with notable inequalities in the overall quality and safety of the services being provided to residents.

"Furthermore, a higher number of congregated settings than in previous years required improvements to the overall quality and safety of the premises."

The transitioning of people from those congregated settings to community-based alternatives has now been hampered due to the housing crisis, according to Hiqa deputy chief inspector of social services, Finbarr Colfer.

Responding to questions from Senator Tom Clonan, Mr Colfer said: "There is a challenge now in terms of housing."

No legal requirement for congregated settings to close

He said the current situation had "slowed down planned moves" and while there was no legal requirement for congregated settings to close, other than the weight of evidence that community-based settings tended to have better outcomes.

"We have seen a slowing down over the past year particularly," he said. "There has been a delay."

Ms Grogan said that "the disability sector is also at the mercy of the housing crisis as well".

She also told the committee: "One of the key areas of learning from the inspections in 2021 was the negative impact of declining levels of compliance with governance and management because of more remote oversight by providers during the pandemic.

"As with previous years, the overview report outlines the clear link between well-governed services and safe quality services.

"During 2021, one in five inspections found improvements were required to the provider’s governance and management arrangements, with non-compliance increasing throughout the year, including in centres where providers had good oversight arrangements prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"This is an area that I as chief inspector have been focusing on during the current year, and many providers are now taking measures to re-establish strong governance arrangements."

Home supports

She said she was not familiar — apart from cases that occurred during the pandemic — in which residents moved out of centres to be with their parents, and she said Hiqa would also focus on the issue of home supports for people utilising them when that comes under Hiqa's remit in future.

That point had also been raised by Mr Clonan, who said he was aware of a case during the 'Beast from the East' severe weather of 2018 in which a wheelchair user was told that his home support would be unable to visit him for 72 hours, adding that he understood there was no specific HSE plan to deal with such a scenario.