We have published our joint inspection report on the protection of children and young people in the Falkirk Council area.
The inspection included services provided by health agencies, the police, the local authority and Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, as well as those provided by voluntary and independent organisations. Joint inspection reports give an evaluation of the effectiveness of services using a published quality indicator framework focusing on 6 key areas:
- how well children and young people are listened to, understood and respected;
- how children and young people benefit from strategies to minimize harm;
- how children and young people are helped by the actions taken in immediate response to concerns;
- how well children’s and young people’s needs are met;
- service improvements through self-evaluation; and
- improvements in performance.
Services in the Falkirk Council area were given 3 evaluations of very good, 2 evaluations of good, 1 evaluation of satisfactory. Inspectors found the following key strengths in how well children were protected and their needs met in the Falkirk Council area.
- Very effective communication with families, helping them to understand what they need to do to help keep their children safe
- Prompt and effective action by services to help keep children safe.
- High quality support to carers, helping them to meet the needs of vulnerable children.
- Services working very well together to help keep children who can no longer live at home remain in their own community.
Inspectors agreed with services in the council area the following points for improvement.
- Improve the quality of assessment of risks and needs and individual children’s plans.
- Increase the pace of change by ensuring that managers at all levels recognise their responsibilities for driving improvements in practice.
- Continue to strengthen joint self-evaluation to ensure that it results in improved outcomes for the most needy children.
We are confident that the services will be able to make the necessary improvements in light of the inspection findings. As a result, we will make no more visits in connection with this inspection. Our link inspector will maintain contact with services to support improvements.