History & Principles
History & principles
Dídean was formed in 2019 by a group of experienced social care professionals who had been working on various projects supporting children in the Direct Provision system in Ireland. For many years Irish society and advocacy groups have acknowledged how poor the existing system has been for those living within it but no specific organisations or services have been established to do anything different than the historical.
The founders of Dídean, who had experience in the Health & Social Care sector, initially established a pilot alternative model to demonstrate to the sector that the needs of migrants could be catered for outside of congregated settings, in a humane way and in line with historical budgets.
The service has since been expanded across several geographical regions and has plans underway to expand nationwide over the coming years,
Dídean’s founders have extensive experience in the building and management of health and social care services in Ireland. The team has been instrumental in several significant changes in this sector in Ireland. Edward Dunne, a social entrepreneur and CEO of Dídean was the founder of Nua Healthcare, the largest private social care provider in the state.
The leadership team has been tasked to deliver a service that adheres to the draft national standards for direct provision from its inception including recent Government committee recommendations, the McMahon report recommendations and international best practice.