Children and Families staff commended for leading service improvements

A “robust” improvement plan across the Council’s Children and Families Service has led to a series of positive Care Inspection reports. 

Four services were inspected during the summer months – Adult Placement, Fostering, Adoption and Rendall Road Care Home Children’s House – with a marked improvement across the service as a whole. 

In all areas, inspectors rated the staff teams as “good” - in comparison to weak or adequate in 2022 and 2023 - with foster carers, adoptive families and caregivers experiencing “positive and helpful” support from “stable and experienced” staff teams. 

Whilst progress continues to be made thanks to the robust improvement plans, the only area identified by inspectors as being “adequate” was around leadership in connection with the Fostering, Adoption and Adult Placement Services – influenced by two management positions being interim. 

The inspectors added: “We were reassured by the focus of current temporary leaders, and the permanently appointed Head of Service, on developing and embedding solid processes and practices that will support standards to be continued in the longer term.” 

The Council’s Head of Children, Families and Justice Service and Chief Social Work Officer, Darren Morrow, said: “All managers are leading the frontline improvement plans, which are clearly working well given the much-improved inspection reports. The tenacity of the staff teams is driving improvements forward and resulting in better outcomes for children and young people. We are grateful for their dedication and work ethic. I would also like to recognise the important role our foster carers, kinship carers and adopters play in caring for and meeting the needs of our care experienced children and young people.  

“On that note, we are currently going live with a local foster carer and adopter recruitment campaign. We need more local foster carers and adopters to take up this very important professional role. Keep an eye out, you will see and hear more about this shortly. If you are interested in making an enquiry to become a foster carer or adopter, please contact Kimberley McPherson, Interim Team Manager of the Fostering, Adoption and Kinship Team by email on  Kimberley.McPherson@orkney.gov.uk or by phone on (01856) 873535.” 

A key area of strength identified in the inspector's feedback was the recognition of improvements in capturing the “voice, choice and participation” of Orkney’s care experienced children and young people. This promotes their individual care plans being child centred and informed by the wishes and feelings of the child and from an overall perspective informs service provision and progression. This is ever more important given the recent enactment of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Law on 16 July 2024. This means that children’s rights, as set out in the UNCRC, will be legally protected in Scotland. Scotland being the first country in the United Kingdom to take this significant step. 

Mr Morrow continued: “I am also pleased to announce that over the summer months the multi-agency partnership in Orkney launched our new Promise and Corporate Parenting Board. The Board will champion the rights of our care experienced children and young people and ensure they receive high quality care, support and protection, to assist them in achieving to their full potential and positively contributing to the community of Orkney. 

“Across the Children and Families Service we have witnessed a significant turnaround position on that of two years ago and that is thanks to the hard work of all involved. We strive to continue work on the improvement plans and part of this is ensuring a stable permanent workforce. 

“We are all aware of the recruitment and retention challenges being felt across the UK, and these are exacerbated here in Orkney by our remote, rural and island context. The Recruitment and Retention Strategy has been reviewed and updated, with our grow your own social worker programme continuing to provide newly qualified social workers to work in a variety of Social Work roles across Children, Adults and Justice Services. 

“We also provide an attractive relocation package alongside numerous other recruitment and retention incentives. Improved Inspection grades and increased stability of the social work teams both act as pull factors, which I am hopeful will entice Social Workers and Social Care staff to apply for our current job roles out for advert, to support us in achieving further progress on our improvement trajectory. Please keep an eye out and see if any of the posts are of interest to you.” 

Orkney Health and Social Care has also launched two recruitment incentives for Adult Services – the Golden Hello scheme and the Refer a Friend scheme. There has never been a better time to join our teams. Check out all the details at www.orkney.gov.uk/wecare 

Chief Officer, Orkney Health and Social Care Partnership, Stephen Brown, said: “The inspection reports give me great confidence that we continue to make significant strides in the quality of care being provided to those who require it. 

“There remains work to be done, and I know that there’s an across-the-board commitment to addressing the outstanding areas and ensuring the services are as they should be in their entirety. 

“We must remember that at the heart of this has been a chronic shortage of permanent staff locally and nationally leading to certain aspects of the services not being provided – this issue was previously highlighted to both the Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate by Orkney Islands Council. 

“There are so many positives from across all services within these reports such as children experiencing nurturing and meaningful relationships with their adoptive families. Adopters having positive relationships with supervising social workers. Young people living with caregiver families experiencing affectionate and meaningful care. Staff forming genuine relationships with carers. People clearly at the heart of what we do. 

“As always, I am hugely grateful to those committed staff – some who have held a caring role for many, many years – and the dedication with which they give to those most in need within our communities.  

“Our thanks also go to those who have come on board with the incentive schemes – we recognise that it has been a difficult concept for some to accept but we hope that the end result will be a much-bolstered workforce with less reliance on agency staff.” 

The reports can be viewed on the Care Inspectorate website www.careinspectorate.com 

Orkney Adoption Service 

Key messages: 

Children and young people received nurturing care from their adoptive families who were committed to meeting their care needs. 

Children and young people's rights were strongly promoted in the service and used to promote their voice and care needs. Adoptive families experienced positive and helpful support from Supervising Social Workers who were trauma informed. 

There was a good level of oversight on the arrangements of letterbox contact, however more support could be provided to birth family members to achieve more meaningful use of the service. A robust improvement plan guided the service to promote positive developments and drive change. Interim managers provided positive support with regular and high-quality supervision. Adoption support plans clearly represented the support needs of the family and identified risk as appropriate. 

The following areas were rated “good” by inspectors – supporting people’s wellbeing; staff team and care and support plans. The leadership was graded as “adequate”. 

Orkney Fostering Service 

Key messages: 

Children and young people received nurturing care from foster carers who were committed to meeting their care needs. 

Children and young people's rights were strongly promoted in the service and used to promote their voice and care needs. 

Foster Carers experienced positive and helpful support from Supervising Social Workers who were trauma informed. 

A robust improvement plan guided the service to promote positive developments and drive change. 

Interim managers provided positive support with regular and high-quality supervision. 

Risk assessments were of a good quality which ensured that children and young people were kept safe. 

The following areas were rated “good” by inspectors – supporting people’s wellbeing; staff team and care and support plans. The leadership was graded as “adequate”. 

Orkney Adult Placement Service – which provides care to young people who are living in foster care up until the age of 21. 

Inspectors found young people experienced “nurturing” care and their rights were strongly promoted with staff providing positive support with regular and high-quality supervision. 

Young people were kept safe thanks to good quality risk assessments and a robust improvement plan guided the service to promote positive developments and drive change. 

The following areas were rated “good” by inspectors – supporting people’s wellbeing; staff team and care and support plans. The leadership was graded as “adequate”. 

The report stated: “Supervising Social Workers had a strong value base with an emphasis on relationship-based practice. Timely interventions were available to support children, young people and their families which were effective and very much appreciated. One family told us that they had a very good relationship with their worker, who was "very knowledgeable in terms of trauma and child development". 

“Supervising Social Workers had a strong value base with an emphasis on relationship-based practice. Timely interventions were available to support children, young people and their families which were effective and very much appreciated. 

“Workers had previously experienced gaps in their support and supervision. However, during this inspection, we found practice was supported by a manager who offered regular and high-quality supervision which resulted in the Supervising Social Workers feeling valued." 

Rendall Road Care Home Service  

Rendall Road residential children's house(s) are situated over two properties within Orkney, accommodating up to six young people. 

An unannounced inspection took place on 23 July 2024. 

“Good” ratings were given in terms of children and young people feeling safe, loved and getting the most out of life and leaders and staff having the capacity and resources to meet and champion children and young people’s needs and rights. 

Key messages: 

Suitable assessment of staffing needs was routinely undertaken. 

The provider had made significant progress with key aspects of training for carers. 

The provider had consistently applied their admissions and matching procedures. 

We observed improvement to the physical environment. 

The provider had adopted a well-considered approach to improvement planning and self-evaluation. 

All mandatory training for carers should be completed timeously.