HIQA Schedule 5 Policies: A Complete Compliance Guide for Irish Care Homes

HIQA Schedule 5 policies outline requirements for the welfare of older people in designated residential care within Ireland. They cover important topics around complaints, use and recording of restraints, behaviour management and staff training, with the overall purpose of delivering standardised care across the country.

When the Health Act 2007 was published in Ireland, one of its key outcomes was the establishment of HIQA or An tÚdarás um Fhaisnéis agus Cáilíocht Sláinte in Gaelic. As an independent regulatory authority, its purpose is to drive high-quality service and safe care for people in Ireland using health and social care facilities. HIQA is responsible for developing standards, inspecting care facilities and reviewing services. 

While written policies are often lengthy, they’re purposefully rigorous. Through the establishment of HIQA, Ireland’s Health Act 2007 brought an end to inconsistent health and social care. It means that patients now have standardised services across the country and staff are governed by a consistent approach. This matters for a number of reasons and ultimately makes your job as a care provider more unified and keeps your staff protected. 

Formal written policy means organisations and their people are: 

• Protected from risk during investigations
• Less at risk of human error
• Consistent in decision-making
• Able to provide stronger patient safeguarding
• More confident in their work
• Given standardised training
• Able to prove compliance during an inspection
• More streamlined in their processes 

Schedule 5 of the Health Act 2007 outlines policies for the “Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People”. Required policies within Schedule 5 concerning Irish care homes and centres for older people include:

• Prevention, detection and response to abuse 
• Admissions 
• Management of behaviour
• Use of restraint 
• Residents’ personal property, finances and possessions 
• Communication
• End-of-life care
• Staff training and development 
• Recruitment, selection and vetting of staff
• Monitoring and documenting nutritional intake
• Provision of information to residents
• The management of records
• Temporary absence and discharge of residents
• Health and safety of residents, staff and visitors (including infection control and food safety).
• Risk management 
• Responding to emergencies 
• Fire safety
• The management and process of administering medicine to residents, including handling and disposal of unused or out-of-date medicines.
• Complaints 

An extra written visitor policy was added by the Minister of Health in April 2025. 

A full list of the Schedule 5 policies and procedures can be found in part S.I. No. 415/2013 of the Health Act 2007, available from the Irish Statute Book.

If you’re just getting started with HIQA compliance, here are the main areas to focus on in your Schedule 5 policy checklist.

Complaints

Having a robust complaints procedure is essential for all care homes under Part 10 of the Health Act 2007. The HIQA complaints policy requires you to “provide an accessible and effective complaints procedure which includes an appeals procedure” and should do the following:

• Make residents and families aware of your complaints procedure when they arrive.
• Visibly display your complaints procedure.
• Nominate a non-partisan individual to deal with any complaints.
• Investigate complaints quickly.
• Help the complainant to understand the complaints procedure.
• Ensure records of all complaints, investigations, outcomes and whether the complainant or resident was satisfied.
• Let the complainant know the outcome of their complaint as soon as possible, as well as the appeals process.
• Respond to a complaint by making improvements. 

Restraint

The HIQA restraint policy helps to keep you, your staff and residents safe. It states that:

• Restraint should only be used in line with national policy which is published on the Department of Health website.
• Records must be kept for any occasion where restraint is used, who it was applied to, the reasons for its use, the duration of the restraint, the nature of the restraint and what intervention were used to manage behaviour.  
  
  

Safeguarding

While there is no dedicated section within the Health Act 2007 that outlines safeguarding policy, it is constantly referenced throughout the legislation. HIQA has its own Guidance on Safeguarding for Designated Centres for People with Disabilities and for Older People which includes:

• Staffing
• Staff development and training
• Governance and management 
• Individual assessment and personal plan
• Behavioural support
• Protection
• Residents’ rights
• Communication
• Premises
• Risk management

Book a consultation today for HIQA-aligned digital compliance around safeguarding from The Access Group.

Risk management

Within Part 7 of the Health Act 2007, you’ll find procedural guidance for risk management. It requires all centres caring for older adults to:

• Have a hazard identification and risk assessment process.
• Have measures in place to control identified risks
• Have measures in place for the following specific risks:
  •  Abuse
  • Unexplained resident absence
  •  Accidental injury of any persons on site
  • Aggression and violence
  • Self harm
• Serious incidents involving residents should be identified, recorded, investigated and have learning outcomes.
  
  

Medication

The medication policy within Schedule 5 requires that you:

• Keep a safe and accessible record when a pharmacist provides medication-related interventions to a resident.
• Keep a record of any medication plans.
• Record an medication errors or adverse reactions. 

The best way to implement the HIQA policies is to get familiar with them. Spend some time reading through Schedule 5 and make a note of the important procedures that we’ve listed above. You’ll want to review the policies in line with your current ways of working and update them where you need to. You can also schedule a regular review of the Schedule 5 policy to check for any changes to the legislation and new procedures that you may need to implement. 

Training your staff on HIQA policies will keep your care centre compliant and also help everyone stay on the same page, ensuring safety for them and your residents.

But you don’t have to do it alone. With policy management tools, you can reduce the burden of compliance on your team and get back to what you do best. Tools like these can help you with everything from mock inspections and audits to setting up care plans for compliant safeguarding and risk management. And when you choose digital compliance management, you reduce the need for excess paperwork by having up-to-date and easily accessible procedures. It helps your version control, audit readiness, staff sign-off and keeping on top of training records. 

For more help on HIQA compliance and streamlining your processes, visit the HCI website and find Schedule 5 Policy support on the HIQA website.

Explore HIQA-aligned digital compliance solutions from The Access Group — streamline your Schedule 5 policies, staff sign-offs, and audit reporting.