A new report examining how well services for children and young people are performing in Orkney has been published today (Monday 20 May).
The Care Inspectorate was asked by Scottish Ministers to lead a new approach to inspecting services for children and young people, bringing together specialist teams from different inspection bodies.
The specialist inspection team brings together professionals from the care, social work, health, police and education regulators. They provide public assurance about the quality of services aimed at giving children and young people the best start in life, and make recommendations about what needs to improve. Each inspection team also includes specially-trained "young inspectors" who can speak to children and young people about their experiences.
Inspectors found that services provided in Orkney had a 'very good' impact on children and were 'good' at providing help and support at an early stage. Leadership of improvement and change was found to be of an 'adequate' standard, as was planning for individual children. Planning and improving services was found to be 'weak' and inspectors consider that leaders may need support to make the necessary improvements in setting a strategic direction.
Annette Bruton, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said:
"It is everybody’s responsibility to support children and young people. These reports will help drive improvement where necessary, and will provide assurance for families everywhere.
"The Care Inspectorate is very pleased to be working with other organisations to develop this new inspection methodology. An approach which only looks at individual services - not how they all fit together - doesn't go far enough. These joint inspections reflect how families use services and are very much focused on the needs of children and young people across all areas.
"Our young inspectors have played a huge role in this. They bring genuine perspectives and great ideas as to how we test the quality of services offered.
"We publish all our inspection reports online at www.careinspectorate.com
ENDS
Notes to Editor
The joint inspection report is available HERE
The joint inspection team comprised professionals from the Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Education Scotland, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland, and specially-trained young inspectors.
The Edinburgh report (published two weeks ago) and the Orkney report, are the results of pilot inspections. Further inspections are now being undertaken in North Ayrshire and Argyll & Bute.