The regulation of residential services for children and adults with a disability is to begin ‘in the coming weeks', the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has confirmed.

This will mark the first time that residential services for people with disabilities will be subject to independent scrutiny by a regulator in this country.

Almost 10,000 people with disabilities currently live in some 1,700 residential care services in Ireland. These services are run by 88 State, private and voluntary providers.

In a presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children on Thursday, HIQA explained that from now on, ‘ people who use disability services and/or their families will know what they should expect from residential services, and service providers will know what is expected of them in delivering a person-centred, high quality and safe service'.

The National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities, which was published earlier this year, ‘will be used as a framework to drive continuous improvements in these services', HIQA insisted.

These national standards will apply to all residential services, whether they are operated by public, private or voluntary agencies. They cover a number of areas including the importance of respecting the privacy and dignity of people and promoting their rights.

"They are also aimed at ensuring the facilitation of choice and safeguarding and protecting people from abuse. They require that people who live in residential services should enjoy a good quality of life and live in a place that feels like their home. It is vital that all services are of a consistently high quality, regardless of which provider is running them," the Oireachtas Committee was told.

HIQA has already held a series of information sessions with service providers on these new standards and following commencement, it will hold further meetings on issues such as preparing for an inspection and responding to inspection reports.

The authority emphasised that the purpose of regulation is to support ‘continuous improvement in the quality and safety of services'. Failure to comply is an offence ‘and persistent failure to comply reflects on the fitness of the provider and other key senior managers'.

"As with our inspection of residential services for older people, if the authority is not satisfied that the provider is sufficiently addressing non-compliances then further action will be considered. These actions may include refusal to register the centre, prosecution, the placing of additional registration conditions and, in situations where there is significant risk to the life or to the health or welfare of residents, immediate cancellation of the centre's registration," HIQA explained.

It added that repeated non-compliance with requirements ‘may also impact on the continued registration and operation of the centre'.