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Active Lice Outbreak Found In Offaly Disability Care Centre

Thursday, 29 January 2026 15:23

Four children were living in the facility on the day of the inspection.

An active head lice outbreak and food well past its sell by date are two headline findings following a HIQA inspection of an Offaly disability centre.

Cedar Lodge, run by Lotus Care Limited, has failed in all but one of 15 regulation areas it's been inspected upon.

This was the centre's first inspection since registration on July 15th last year.

On the day of inspection Cedar Lodge was home to four children.

Protection Against Infection

There was an active lice outbreak at the facility for HIQA's unannounced visit in October.

Staff couldn't tell inspectors when the outbreak began but there was some evidence one child had head lice in August.

It appeared the children may have been sharing fine tooth combs, while there was a hair scrunchie left beside the combs.

The provider said bed sheets were changed every couple of days but upon examination neither the inspectors or management could find any spare bed linen except for one set for one child. 

Contracts

The inspector found that the provider had admitted four children within four weeks and that they did not follow their own admissions policy or the statement of purpose.

The contracts for the provision of services were signed by the children's representatives.

However none of these were signed by the provider and or dated.

One contract reviewed was incomplete, it did not include the child's name or a start date of placement.

The provider also had contracts for each child with the commissioner of the services.

The admission dates for two children on these contracts were four months before the centre was even registered, they also had discharge dates even though the children continued to reside in the centre. 

Nutrition

One child was observed in the morning walking around eating a pancake that was later found past its best before date.

While a number of food items in the refrigerator including milk, yogurts and ham that were all past their use by date.

The food records for each child generally showed their food intake was not wholesome or nutritious and there was a significant over reliance on frozen food.

Dinners over a five day period consisted of chicken nuggets, chips and or potato wedges. Records indicated vegetables were offered on one day only.

The inspectors were concerned that two staff spoken with did not have a comprehensive command of the English language.

There were two children that were pre-verbal residing in the centre and inspectors asked management how staff implemented these children's care plans pertaining to communication if they were not proficient in English themselves.

The facility failed across a range of other regulations including around staffing, residents' rights, and the management of medicine.

Due to the level of safeguarding concerns found the Chief Inspector took the decision to share the provisional findings of this inspection with Tusla immediately afterwards.

An action plan from the centre has undertaken an action plan to resolve the non-compliance.

At the time of the publication of the report a number of these issues have been addressed with a number still to be completed.

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