(11 May 2009)
John Moloney, T.D., Minister of State with special responsibility for Equality, Disability and Mental Health today (Monday, 11th May) welcomed the publication by the Health Information and Quality Authority of National Quality Standards for Residential Services for People with Disabilities. He has also welcomed the commitment from the HSE to start to implement the standards on a non-statutory basis, within existing resources, in order to progressively improve the services for the benefit of people with disabilities.
The Minister said: “These Standards are based on the principles of Quality of Life; Safety; Rights; Anti-discrimination; Person-centredness; Community Integration, and Responsive Services. They seek to enable persons with disabilities who are in residential services to achieve their full potential in every aspect of their lives. They have been developed in consultation with stakeholders and I would like to commend all those who contributed to their development.”
The Minister acknowledged that, given the current fiscal situation, it was not proposed to move to full statutory implementation of the standards, including regulation and inspection, at this time. However, progressive implementation of the standards would be commenced on a non-statutory basis in all publicly-funded facilities, in order to maintain the drive for improving the quality and safety of services. “The initial focus will be on achieving better outcomes within the existing physical infrastructure and current staffing and revenue levels” , the Minister said.
The Minister added that there would be further discussions between his Office, HIQA and the HSE about how best to introduce, within available resources, an appropriate form of external monitoring of the quality of residential services for people with disabilities.