OHAC chief to meet with staff

Orkney Health and Social Care Chief Officer, Stephen Brown, has appealed for time to ascertain with current staff how they view the health and heart of the service they work within.

Mr Brown will spending the next few weeks meeting individually with every member of staff from the Children and Families Service fieldwork teams to hear their personal reflections and perspectives on their experiences over time and now.

It is vital to the service as a whole and the wider community that the Chief Officer has a clear picture of the staff position now to allow continued improvements to happen.

At the end of the day, the Council, unions, staff and the wider public all have the same aim – a service that everyone can be proud of and one that delivers the best quality of care possible.

The Council takes all allegations of any nature very seriously, including bullying, and agrees that it is absolutely not a culture it would condone.

Mr Brown said: “Headlines of this nature week after week are so damaging to the wider public perception of the services that are operating now in 2023, to the current staff and, perhaps most importantly to vulnerable children and families currently being supported by the services.

“I am appealing now to be given the time to work with staff on this to establish a crystal clear picture of how they are feeling in terms of their workplace.”