Resident at Cork city Cope Foundation centre had no activities recorded in 15 days, report reveals

DISABLED adults living in a Cope Foundation centre in Cork City have made complaints about a lack of activities for them, due to staffing issues, a new report has found.

This centre did not meet the conditions required for the renewal of its licence, which expired at the end of March, but was allowed to renew it with an additional condition that the non-compliances be addressed by the end of next year.

Inspection reports on three Cork centres for adults with disabilities were recently published by The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), with six non-compliances in Cork City South 1. The report stated that the centre was “not adequately resourced”, with residents raising the issue that staffing arrangements impact their ability to do activities in the evenings.

The inspector explained, “Residents generally attended day services during weekdays and when the inspector asked if they did anything in the evenings after day services, some residents responded that they could not as there was only one staff member on duty in the house.” Residents had complained about this in July 2023 and November 2023, but these complaints remained open and unresolved at the time of inspection.

One resident was not recorded as having done any activity for 15 days in November, but on one day that month a chiropody appointment was listed as an activity they did, meaning that the time without activities was likely longer, as the medical appointment would not be considered a social activity.

Another resident had a goal identified in September 2023 to go to the cinema but three months later at the time of inspection, there was no documented evidence of progress for this.

In addition to staffing, there were also concerns relating to fire safety, risk management, notification of incidents and governance, with the report noting, “There remained a number of regulatory actions found on this inspections with some being recurrent actions from past inspections.

“Taking into account the finding across all five inspections during the centre’s current registration period, this did not provide assurance that there had been effective governance and oversight of this centre for some time.” 

At the time of this inspection this designated centre was registered until March 2024, and the provider submitted an application in August 2023 to renew the centre for a further three years.

In accordance with the Health Act 2007, such an application can only be granted if the provider is in compliance with relevant regulations, and it is noted “the current inspection found that the staffing arrangements provided were not consistently supporting this.” 

ADDITIONAL CONDITION

A HIQA spokesperson told The Echo that Cork City South 1 has had its registration renewed but added, “the centre is registered with three standard conditions of registration and an additional restrictive condition of registration.” 

This additional condition is that “the provider shall address the regulatory non compliances as outlined in the plan dated 20/02/2024 to the satisfaction of the Office of the Chief Inspector no later than 31/12/2026”.

A spokesperson for the Cope Foundation told The Echo, “The organisation is working, within the resources available to it, to implement the compliance plans it has provided to HIQA.

“Significant progress has been made in addressing the items highlighted since the inspections.

“Three new staff have started at CCS1 since the inspection and active recruitment is ongoing across Cope Foundation’s centres. Staff training is ongoing throughout the organisation.

“Cope Foundation continues to strive to provide the best possible services to the people it supports in designated centres across Cork city and county.”