<p>
	Health and social care watchdog Hiqa also received notifications about serious injuries and misconduct by staff.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Last year there were more than 70 notifications of alleged abuse against disabled children in care, Ireland&rsquo;s health watchdog has said.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Hiqa, the independent body responsible for monitoring the quality of health and social services in Ireland, received 175 notifications from centres with responsibility for disabled children.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Out of these, 72 were allegations of suspected or confirmed abuse &ndash; making it the largest category for notifications against centres responsible for disabled children.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	There were also complaints about serious injuries to residents (38), allegations of misconduct by the registered provider or by staff (11), and one unexpected death of a resident after being transferred to hospital.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	How are notifications made to Hiqa?</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The information that Hiqa has released today are notifications &ndash; not complaints.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The difference is that the centres themselves are legally required to report certain types of incidents within three working days of the alleged incident.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Besides the ones listed above, other incidents that centres have to report include:</p>
<p>
	The outbreak of certain diseases</p>
<p>
	The unexplained absence of a resident</p>
<p>
	Any incident where the centre become aware that a member of staff is subject to a review by a professional body</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Across Ireland there are 62 centres with responsibility for children with disabilities, and around half of these provide full-time residential care for children with disabilities.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Hiqa does not give an exact number for children being cared for in these centres, as only 32 of these centres have completed registration &ndash; and a complete set of figures for the unregistered centres isn&rsquo;t available.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	However, among the centres that are fully registered, many look after only a handful of residents.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Breaking down the 32 centres registered with Hiqa it works out that 20 them had five or fewer residents, 11 had between 6 and 10 residents and the rest of the centres had just one resident.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	In total the Hiqa carried out 78 inspections on centres for children with a disability last year.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	What else was found in today&rsquo;s report?</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	It has also been found in today&rsquo;s report that 7% of children in foster care last year had no social worker to support them &ndash; something that Hiqa says leaves them exposed to unnecessary risks.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	It also found that there was a disparity in meeting standards depending on the geographical location of the centres.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	In total Hiqa has 27 standards for child protection and welfare services that it inspects against.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	The watchdog judges these standards in the following categories: &lsquo;standards met&rsquo;, &lsquo;standards requiring improvement&rsquo;, or &lsquo;standards against which significant risk was identified&rsquo;.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Looking at areas was risk identified, geographically it broke down like this:</p>
<p>
	Dublin North, 2</p>
<p>
	Dublin South East/ Wicklow, 1</p>
<p>
	Louth/ Meath, 8</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by the Journal.ie on the 2nd June 2016)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/allegations-abuse-children-disability-2801908-Jun2016/">http://www.thejournal.ie/allegations-abuse-children-disability-2801908-Jun2016/</a></p>
