A troubled care home for children in Ayr will be placed in the spotlight by South Ayrshire Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday, October 29.
Ayrshire Live previously revealed how bosses at council-run Cunningham Place care home for children were told to take “urgent and decisive” action to improve service delivery.
Now the local authority’s cabinet will discuss a report from the Head of Children’s Health, Care and Justice into the work being carried out to drive up standards.
Ayrshire Live revealed back in August that care scrutiny body, The Care Inspectorate, expressed concerns over the safety of some children living at Cunningham Place.
Inspectors from the organisation visited the home in July and flagged up a number of issues which needed “immediate attention.”
Among the key issues were “risks to young people’s safety,” with some youngsters admitting they “felt excluded.”
And staff were “not consistently providing” trauma-informed care, while there was a “limited knowledge” of children’s rights and how to support their rights.
Young people – and staff – also “raised concerns” about the quality of the food.
And many staff “did not feel supported” by the managers and external managers, nor “did they feel that they benefited” from regular advice and guidance through effective supervision, team meetings, handovers, or a supportive team of peers.
The home was graded as ‘weak’ across the quality indicator relating to how it supports children and young people’s rights and wellbeing.
And the Care Inspectorate demanded changes, saying: “The leadership team require to take urgent and decisive action to improve service delivery.”
Cunningham Place is a registered care home service provided by South Ayrshire Council. The service provides care to a maximum of seven young people.
An extract from the Care Inspectorate report said: “We evaluated the service as weak, as the strengths identified were outweighed by significant weaknesses, requiring action in the form of structured and planned improvement.
“Some young people expressed that they felt safe in the service, and all young people had access to independent advocacy. We found that there were risks to young people’s safety, with some young people stating that they felt excluded at times. This compromised young people’s quality of relationships with staff, the atmosphere within the home, and young people’s emotional wellbeing.”
The report goes on: “Staff were not consistently providing trauma-informed care. We found that there was a lack of therapeutic work undertaken with young people, and strategies used to support young people were absent or unclear. This meant that the care provided to young people was inconsistent and staff’s responses to young people were, at times, insensitive and did not support their emotional wellbeing.”
In terms of the quality of mealtimes, the Care Inspectorate asked the service to “take this forward” and strive for improvements.
There were plus points in the report with the care body noting that young people were making “good progress” through their plans and the service was providing care to some young people under “continuing care” arrangements.
And children were “supported” to access services including health, education and employment opportunities. But communication and information sharing at the home “required to be improved” to ensure young people were “kept safe.”
Among the requirements, that were to be in place by August 30, the provider was told to ensure that there is “effective leadership” to provide structure and support to the staff team.
The report added: “This is to ensure young people’s needs are met and they are kept safe.”
In the wake of the Care Inspectorate report a spokesperson for the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said they were “disappointed” at the findings.
They added: “While we fully accept the need to improve in the areas identified, we know that this poor inspection report is inconsistent with the very positive inspection outcomes from the other children’s house in our locality, as well as our recent inspection for our Fostering, Adoption and Continuing Care service, which were rated as ‘Good.’
“The quality of care we provide to our children and young people in our community is our top priority.”
The local authority also confirmed that they initiated a “full improvement action plan” to address all requirements and recommendations identified.
Now that plan is expected to be revealed- and discussed- by Cabinet on Tuesday.
Council papers state that: “It is recommended that the Cabinet acknowledges the Care Inspectorate’s unannounced inspection of Cunningham Place Children’s House and the grading of being Weak, reflects upon the key messages from the Inspection report, and the requirements and recommendations highlighted; and acknowledges the Health and Social Care Partnership’s Improvement plan and is assured of the ongoing improvement work being undertaken.”
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