Statement on Care Inspectorate Report on Sheltered Housing Service

The Care Inspectiate carried out an inspection of our Sheltered Housing Service in October, across the two sites of Lambaness in Kirkwall and Raes Close in Stromness.

Key positives that were highlighted by the Care Inspectorate were our warm and pleasant staff, their positive relationships with our services users and the positive aspects of the social activities that are organised for these service users.

Key areas for improvement were around the personal plans for our service users, enhancements to communication with our service users on staff changes, improvements around record keeping and a staff training needs analysis.

We would reassure our service users and families that we are exceptionally concerned by the outcome of this report and are  working hard to address some of these issues. Much of this improvement is already underway with support from senior staff in the service and was indeed well underway during the inspection.

The report also reflected the significant staffing challenges that are being faced, particularly in terms of recruiting relief staff to shore up the resilience of the service - an issue that provides a common thread across inspections of lots of Orkney-based services over the last year.   Work continues around recruitment into this sector.

We recognise that the Care Inspectorate inspection regime is an integral part of ensuring good quality service delivery and as such we will work fully to ensure improvement in this service area.

A copy the report is available here.