The inspectors said that child safeguarding practices in the centre needed significant improvement.
“Although procedures existed for reporting child protection and welfare concerns, ineffective monitoring and oversight led to poor responses to some incidents which had occurred in the centre,” the report from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said.
“By way of an example, a safeguarding incident occurred involving the welfare of four children while their parent was hospitalised, which was found to have been poorly managed.
“Despite making required reports to the child and family agency (Tusla) and An Garda Síochána, the provider failed to take reasonable and proportionate interim measures to protect the children while in the centre.
“The issue was also not promptly escalated internally, and when it was, no actions were taken by senior management.”
The inspector also found that the provider failed to ensure that recruitment practices in this centre were safe and effective.
“There was no staff recruitment policy in the centre. Garda vetting was not completed for one staff member who had commenced work a few weeks prior to the inspection. There were no risk assessments carried out for a staff member with positive garda vetting disclosures,” the report said.
“The inspectors issued an urgent compliance plan to address these concerns.”
Hiqa published nine reports on direct provision centres and three had non-compliances while the six others had varying levels of compliance.
Across the inspections, officials found examples of good practice, including facilities for cooking and preparing meals and residents working or volunteering in the community.
Non-compliance was found in areas including identification, assessment and response to special needs, contingency planning and emergency preparedness, accommodation, food, catering and cooking facilities, governance, accountability and leadership, responsive workforce, and safeguarding and protection.
For example, in one of the centres inspectors found that a safeguarding incident involving the welfare of four children was not managed in line with policy.
Where non-compliance with the national standards was identified, providers were required to submit compliance plans to demonstrate how they will make improvements and come into compliance with the national standards.
