Inspection of the HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service ... - hiqa.ie

Inspection of the HSE Child Protection and Welfare Service in Waterford Local Health Area in
the HSE South Region
Health Information and Quality Authority
Theme 5: Workforce
The service organises and manages its workforce to ensure that staff members have
the required knowledge, skills, experience and competencies to protect children and
promote their welfare and to provide an effective service to children and families.
Related reference:
• Standard 5:1 – Safe recruitment practices are in place to recruit staff with the
required competencies to protect children and promote their welfare.
• Standard 5:2 – Staff have the required skills and experience to manage and
deliver effective services.
• Standard 5:3 – All staff are supported and receive supervision in their work to
protect children and promote their welfare.
• Standard 5:4 – Child protection and welfare training is provided to staff to
improve outcomes for children.
Standard 5:1 – Safe recruitment practices are in place to recruit staff with
the required competencies to protect children and promote their welfare.
This standard was met.
All staff were recruited in line with national policy and legislation through the
National Recruitment Board and files viewed by inspectors showed that all staff had
the required Garda Síochána vetting, three references and evidence of qualifications.
Inspectors viewed evidence that staff recruited some time ago had updated Garda
vetting completed when they were made permanent or changed post.
Personnel records were stored securely and contained all the required information.
There was a designated personnel officer with responsibility for maintaining staff
personnel files. While all files were securely stored and the staff files viewed by
inspectors contained all the relevant information required, navigating through the
files to obtain this information was cumbersome and time consuming, as the layout
of the files was not user friendly. For example, information was filed in no particular
order, which entailed inspectors looking through entire personnel files to locate one
key document, such as Garda Síochána vetting.
The national policy in relation to induction was implemented and staff informed
inspectors that they had undergone an induction process in line with this policy.
Supervision records showed that a programme for induction was in place for staff
and that staff were expected to sign sections of it to confirm that they had been
completed. The induction programme contained reference to key documents which
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