The proposed standards for children’s social services must be approved by the Minister before being implemented. The approval should be done in conjunction with the Minister for Health. Under the Health Act, 2007, the Minister of Health approves standards developed by HIQA. The Act was written before the Department for Children was established and therefore the powers of the Minister to approve standards refer to both the Minister of Health and the Minister of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Following submission of the proposed new Standards for Children’s Social Services in December 2021, the Minister wrote to the Chair of the HIQA Board, stating the concerns raised by officials at previous advisory group sessions and bilateral meetings. This reply was shared with the Department of Health for information purposes.
The Chair responded to the Minister with a letter emphasising the Board’s commitment to and endorsement of the Standards.
HIQA then advised that they were in consultation with Tusla to develop implementation tools and guidance relevant to the draft Standards for Children’s Social Services. At a meeting in June 2022, the HIQA Standards Development Team advised that they met with senior Tusla officials to discuss implementation support tools. HIQA advised by email that they were developing a steering committee to oversee the development of the implementation support tools, which includes Tusla and the Children’s Rights Alliance. A cross-sectoral Working Group was also to be developed and IFCA, the Irish Foster Care Association, were invited to be part of the working group.
The regulation directorate of HIQA are developing an assessment and judgement framework for inspections against the Draft National Standards for Children’s Social Care in the foster care sector. HIQA previously stated that their aim was to have this completed by September 2022. The Minister wrote to the HIQA board in December 2021 seeking information on the proposed HIQA assessment judgement frame work. Department Officials advise that this correspondence has not been received to date, despite a number of requests by this Department. The Department has consistently emphasised that in order to advise the Minister adequately and for his own required detailed information , the inspection methodology proposed as well as the Standards must be available for review.
