Orkney Children and Young People’s Service - “encouraging” progress made

Inspection Review of services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney

Statement on behalf of the Orkney Partnership

The services inspected are provided by NHS Orkney, Orkney Islands Council, Police Scotland and third sector agencies.

Partners in Orkney have made “encouraging” progress within previously identified areas of improvement required within the Children and Young People’s Service in the county.

While there remains work to be done, a Care Inspectorate follow up review highlights “more effective leadership and planning” in place, which is driving forward positive change.

The Care Inspectorate carried out a joint inspection of the Children and Young People’s Service in Orkney and published its findings in February 2020. A follow-up review has been carried out and is now available on the Care Inspectorate website: www.careinspectorate.com

The review found that:

• partners in Orkney were now making encouraging progress in responding to the areas for improvement identified by the previous inspection;
• key processes in responding to children in need of protection have been improved and policies and procedures to support practice have been updated;
• partners need to maintain momentum in order to sustain the improvements that have been made and the change that has been achieved;
• partners still need to be able to evidence the difference that the recent changes they have made are making to improving outcomes for children and families.

Orkney Islands Council interim Chief Executive John Mundell said: “Services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney are provided by NHS Orkney, Orkney Islands Council, Police Scotland and third sector agencies. When the Care Inspectorate’s report was published in February 2020, all involved in providing these vital services made a clear pledge to act on its findings and work together to put considerable improvements in place. I am confident this is happening and, as detailed within the Care Inspectorate review, welcome progress is being made.

“The report is reflective of where we believe ourselves to be, underlining the importance of our approach to self-evaluation and continual improvement.

“We acknowledge that it was a slow start as key appointments required to be made; however now we have, as the report states, more effective leadership in place and with this has come a more focused direction moving forward with a comprehensive improvement plan produced.

“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, during the latter part of 2020, the pace of change was stepped up further and there has been a focus on effective staff engagement and on improving governance and accountability. Key policies and procedures were also updated followed by a series of high-profile practice events into spring 2021. As a result of this, the follow up review has identified that improvements have been made or are well underway.

“There remains work to be done and the positive progress that has been made so far lays the foundations for further improvement. It is critical that we ensure our services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney are first class. We owe it to them and that is why our Chief Officers have prioritised necessary change and improvements alongside responding to the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The report also states that the visibility of senior leaders, especially those within health, is key to the impetus being maintained. Their profile is crucial to not only successfully driving the improvements that are still required, but also sustaining the changes that have been made.

NHS Orkney Interim Chief Executive Michael Dickson said: “The initial findings from the joint inspection of services for children and young people in need of care and protection has weighed heavily on all of us in the Community Planning Partnership.

“Today’s progress report is enormously encouraging as it shows we are heading in the right direction and clear progress has been made, however, we acknowledge this a journey and we have more to do.

“It is important we recognise that what has been achieved has been through the commitment of the staff who grasp the importance of ensuring the services we provide to children and young people in need of protection have a clear focus and are delivered with commitment.

“We, as a partnership, should never have arrived at a point where an inspection found that what we had in place fell short. Going forward, strategic leadership and planning, with effective and hands-on management, will ensure that our services give vulnerable children and young people the opportunity to have the best chance of a happy and stable life.”

Highland and Islands Divisional Commander Chief Superintendent Conrad Trickett said: "We have worked closely with partners over the last 18 months to understand and act on the recommendations of the 2020 report.

“Since the initial inspection, we have made improvements around information sharing and inter-agency referral discussions. The Child Exploitation Risk Assessment Group and introduction of a divisional Child Sexual Exploitation co-ordinator has helped to drive these improvements and has enabled us to better share information and intelligence as well as providing a focus on prevention, intervention, protection and detection.

"Police Scotland is committed to helping keep young people safe and we remain dedicated to playing our part in the Orkney Partnership to continue making improvements.”

The Care Inspectorate and its scrutiny partners will continue to monitor progress and to offer support for improvement to community planning partners in Orkney.

Inspectors stated within the report: “Over the next year, we would expect to see the changes that have been made being consolidated and added to so that they can be sustained over time. We would also anticipate that the positive effect of these changes on the lives of children in need of protection in Orkney will become evident and will lead to demonstrably better outcomes for them.

“To provide evidence of this, we will explore opportunities with partners in Orkney to gain the views of children, young people and their families as part of our ongoing monitoring work. This will be key to a second progress review that will include a focus on their lived experience. In the meantime, we will continue to offer support as required and monitor progress through existing link inspector arrangements.”

Mr Mundell said the staff effort in achieving the improvements to date must be commended.

“We appreciate the efforts and contributions of our staff and realise the pace of some changes has been challenging but necessary. We must continue working together as a team to sustain and further develop the improvements we are making.”

Key improvement areas to take forward are:

• Recognising and responding to neglect.
• Developing practice supporting chronologies of significant events.
• Further developing the approach to initial referral discussions (IRDs) for greater consistency.
• Strengthening the approach to receiving, recording, and responding to the voice of the child.
• Developing a sustainable workforce, particularly social workers.

The Partnership’s next steps:

• Share the findings of the Progress Review across the Partnership, followed by Individual Service Feedback to improve partnership effectiveness.
• Continue to engage the childcare workforce in improving our approaches to children in need of care and protection, while maintaining momentum to sustain and further develop the improvements we are making.
• Remain committed to learning from feedback, findings from complaints, learning reviews, scrutiny, auditing, self-evaluation, individual service approaches, Inspections and progress reviews.
• Meet in person with the Care Inspectors to discuss their next steps including a further progress review.

The Care Inspectorate Progress Review, following the 2020 joint inspection of services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney, will be published and available on their website from 10am Tuesday 24 August: www.careinspectorate.com