Four children were missing from IPAS centre for two weeks

Four children went missing from an IPAS centre for just over two weeks, according to a Health Information and Quality Authority report.

The incident - described as "poorly managed" by HIQA - occurred when the children's parent was hospitalised.

Despite making required reports to Tusla - the Child and Family Agency - and gardaí, HIQA said the provider of the service failed to take reasonable and proportionate interim measures to protect the children.

This led to the staff team being unaware of the children’s whereabouts for 15 days.

The revelation is contained in one of nine inspection reports on international protection accommodation services published today.

The safeguarding incident - discovered by an inspector in July - was not promptly escalated internally according to the report , and when it was, no actions were taken by senior management.

HIQA has also said pre-existing safeguarding issues were not risk assessed.

However, significant adverse incidents were reported to the relevant government department (Department of Children) as required.

HIQA said improvement was required to ensure that all adverse incidents were "consistently recorded" in a manner that allowed them to be "reviewed effectively".

Three of the services that feature in today’s reports that were inspected were found to be compliant.

Inspectors found examples of good practice, including, facilities for cooking and preparing meals and residents working or volunteering in the community, space for children to play and activities and day trips arranged for children and their families.

The remaining six centres had varying levels of compliance.