RESIDENTIAL SERVICES for thousands of people with disabilities will be subject to independent standards and inspections for the first time under plans to be announced later today.
The Health Information and Quality Authority will publish a draft version of new standards which will set out what a quality and safe service for people with disabilities in a residential setting in Ireland should be.
The final standards will be mandatory ones under which all residential services for people with disabilities will be inspected by the authority.
The standards are ultimately aimed at ensuring people with disabilities have the best possible quality of life, such as having access to family or friends and appropriate therapies or activities.
They will also have major implications for service providers who, in many cases, will need to modernise their facilities and ensure there are appropriate levels of qualified staff in their services.
For example, of the estimated 10,000 people with disabilities in residential settings, health authorities believe that up to 3,000 are living in outdated institutions and need be transferred to more suitable community settings.
The draft standards to be published today are not expected to give precise deadlines for service providers to modernise their facilities.
However, the final draft is likely to impose a time limit on service providers to meet certain aims, such as minimum bedroom sizes and staffing ratios. These will ultimately be backed up by more detailed regulations to be drawn up by the Government.
A consultation process is due to be announced today which will allow people with disabilities, their families, care workers and service providers to provide an input into the new standards regime.
While officials hope the new standards can be in place towards the end of next year, budget restrictions may delay this.
Inclusion Ireland, the national organisation representing people with intellectual disabilities, yesterday welcomed the planned publication of the standards but called on the Government to act speedily to bring them into force.
"The publication of the draft standards will be a very important step," said Deirdre Carroll of Inclusion Ireland.
"But it is vital that the Government ensures there are resources available to implement them. They are crucial and will have a major impact on the quality of life of residents."
The Government first began discussing plans for national standards six years ago and a planned framework was drawn up in 2004. However, they were never brought into force, despite repeated pledges to do so.
The new standards will also introduce a form of accountability for service providers which receive more than €1 billion a year in taxpayers' money to provide residential care.