{"id":618681,"date":"2026-09-08T23:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618681\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T23:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T23:04:13","slug":"tusla-housing-children-in-hotel-rooms-poses-significant-safety-risks-says-watchdog-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/618681\/","title":{"rendered":"Tusla housing children in hotel rooms poses \u2018significant\u2019 safety risks, says watchdog \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tusla<\/a> housing vulnerable children in hotel rooms when no other accommodation is available poses \u201csignificant\u201d safety risks, the Health Information and Quality Authority<\/a> (Hiqa) has said.<\/p>\n

The State\u2019s health services watchdog inspected the child and family agency\u2019s national out-of-hours service earlier this year, finding that some children were still housed in hotel rooms because Tusla had \u201cvery limited access to emergency residential care placements\u201d.<\/p>\n

When children are housed in hotel rooms \u2013 referred to as Immediate Places of Safety (IPOS) by Tusla \u2013 they are supervised by agency social care staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe potential negative impact on the wellbeing of children and additional safeguarding risks for children when placed in unregulated IPOS arrangements was a significant concern,\u201d Hiqa said in a report published on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Staff working in the service \u201cexpressed significant concern\u201d about the arrangement, the report added.<\/p>\n

Tusla\u2019s out-of-hours service provides an emergency child protection and welfare service when the agency\u2019s local services are closed at night and over weekends.<\/p>\n

Hiqa inspected the service between March 24th and April 2nd. Of the nine national standards assessed, the service was found to be not compliant with six standards and substantially compliant with three standards.<\/p>\n

The watchdog said the service did not \u201chave a clear purpose and function\u201d and lacked defined governance and management structures. <\/p>\n

Hiqa\u2019s report noted that in the 12 months prior to the inspection, a number of audits into service provision were carried out by Tusla. Between July and September 2025, an internal review of eight cases related to IPOS accommodation took place.<\/p>\n

\u201cA significant risk was identified in that in all eight cases reviewed [service] staff were unable to cross-check agency staff assigned for care of young people within the IPOS, against Tusla\u2019s central compliance list of approved staff, as they did not have access to this service out of hours,\u201d Hiqa said.<\/p>\n

At the time of the inspections in March and April, Hiqa said staff in the out-of-hours service \u201chad not received the necessary access to the compliance register for these basic safeguarding checks on staff\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hiqa also said a \u201crisk escalation procedure\u201d had \u201cyet to be approved\u201d for the service, despite this issue being raised at a previous inspection two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, risks relating to poor governance systems, identified during the August 2024 inspection, had not been fully addressed,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Hiqa said the level of out-of-hours care received by children varied depending on where they lived, stating that an equitable service was not provided to young people living outside Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of children living outside these areas had limited in-person contact with a social worker when referred [to the service]. These children also faced delays in receiving a service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report said a review undertaken in 2023 \u201crecommended a significant restructuring of the service\u201d to ensure a consistent service was available to all children nationally, but \u201cthis had not been progressed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report also highlighted some of the progress made by the service, saying staff \u201cwere committed to keeping children safe\u201d and \u201cinspectors saw examples of good quality out-of-hours safeguarding work with children\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the 12 months prior to this inspection, the service had taken positive action relating to the screening of referrals, communication with children, establishment of a system for auditing casework on referrals and the recognition and escalation of risk,\u201d Hiqa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the inspection, management submitted a satisfactory compliance plan to Hiqa, which outlined plans to address the issues identified during the inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tusla acknowledged the publication of the report, which it said highlighted \u201ca number of positive findings\u201d but also areas where \u201cimprovement is required\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cTusla accepts these findings and acknowledges that the service has not consistently met the standard expected in all areas,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2025 we experienced the largest ever demand for our services, receiving over 106,000 referrals to our child protection service, up 10 per cent compared to 2024 (96,666), and almost 800 referrals to our Separated Children Seeking International Protections (SCSIP) Service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the inspection, Tusla submitted a comprehensive compliance plan to Hiqa and has already implemented a number of measures to strengthen governance, oversight and service delivery, the statement added.<\/p>\n

Tusla said it recognised the broader challenges highlighted by Hiqa regarding the limited availability of emergency residential and foster care placements. The agency said addressing placement capacity remained a \u201cpriority\u201d. <\/p>\n

Commenting on the report, Gerry Hone, interim director of services and integration at Tusla, said he welcomed Hiqa\u2019s inspection and the role it played in supporting accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus remains on ensuring that every child who requires an emergency out-of-hours intervention receives a safe, timely and effective response, regardless of where they live,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tusla housing vulnerable children in hotel rooms when no other accommodation is available poses \u201csignificant\u201d safety risks, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,53],"class_list":["post-618681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tusla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}