Two ‘incidents’per month at children’s home

A spokesperson for the ‘The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority’ (RQIA), based in Belfast, confirmed that there had been 14 ‘notifiable events’ at the children’s home since April.

Notifiable events can include incidents as serious as the “involvement or suspected involvement of a child accommodated at the home in sexual exploitation”, a “serious complaint about the home or persons working there”, or a “serious incident necessitating calling the police to the home.”

Other ‘notifiable events’ as defined by legislation can also include an “allegation that a child accommodated at the home has committed a serious offence”, the “death of a child accommodated at the home”, or a “serious illness or serious accident sustained by a child accommodated at the home”.

Events considered ‘notifiable’ can also include the outbreak of an illness considered by a “registered medical practitioner attending children at the home” to be serious enough to be reported to the RQIA, the “instigation and outcome of any child protection enquiry involving a child accommodated at the home” or a referral to the Department in light of child protection legislation.

There have been 14 notifiable events at a children’s home in Limavady since April – a rate of more than two per month.

Meanwhile, the most recent inspection carried out by the RQIA into the children’s home in Limavady found it to be “providing quality care for the young people living in the home.”

The unannounced inspection took place on a weekday during February, when the Inspector “informally spoke to staff and young people in the course of their duties, examined a selection of statutory records (including a basic audit of one file from a safeguarding perspective) and undertook an environmental inspection of the home from a care perspective.”

Overall, the RQIA Inspection Report stated: “This was a positive inspection. It evidenced that the home is working to regulations and in the view of the inspector is providing quality care for the young people living in the home.”

The Children’s Inspector also carried out an audit into “the quality of how the residential social work staff and field social work staff were managing the very serious safeguarding issues” around a particular young person. The Inspector was declared to have been “impressed” in the Inspection report after carrying out his audit.

The Inspector also made some recommendations in terms of redecorating the home, replacing damaged furniture, improving fire safety procedures and notifying the relevant authorities on management chagnes.

However, overall, the Inspection report was “positive” about the quality of care at the home.