Galway childcare standards exposed

The standard of childcare facilities at all of Galway’s pre-schools, playschools and crèches is laid bare in the Health Service Executive West’s inspection outcome reports, which have been made public for the first time.

The reports, which are now available for parents to view online, catalogue a litany of bad practices, and in some cases dangerous practices, by some of city’s and county’s well known childcare facilities.

Most of the inspection outcome reports, of around 100 facilities in Galway, show full compliance with childcare guidelines, and others were found to have what might be categorised as minor breaches.

However, several of the facilities inspected had questionable practices – the condition of the buildings was dangerous in some instances, in others there were problems with hygiene practices that was putting children at risk, and others had inadequate ratios of staff to children, while in some cases the staff hadn’t been vetted by Gardaí to work with children.

The HSE only just published the Galway inspection reports online in the wake of shock and outrage over the treatment of toddlers in three crèches in Dublin and Wicklow captured by secret cameras by an RTÉ Prime Time investigation.

Some of the reports, seen by the Galway City Tribune, could cause disquiet among parents about the quality of care their children are receiving. The childcare providers responded to the concerns of the HSE and outlined measures taken to rectify the problem.

In one childcare facility there were insufficient staff working on the day, vetting procedures of staff were not completed and employee references for staff were not kept. The same facility was not meeting the basic needs of children on several counts including eating and drinking, nappy changing and sleeping.

Toddlers were observed being given “steaming hot food”; snacks were served directly onto table tops in all rooms; regular hand-washing by children was not observed.

Nappy changing facilities were “substandard” and the sleep facilities were “not adequate”. There was peeling paint in the baby room posing a hazard; “there was a hanging cord from a baby monitor and lamp within reach of babies”.

Staff at the facility, “did not always demonstrate sensitivity, warmth and positive regard for the children. In particular, a staff member in the baby room spoke with a raised voice.”

The building itself was in a poor state of repair – “communal areas and some rooms in the service were dirty and posed a risk of infection”.

 For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.