Services for children and young people in need of care and protection in Orkney are now improving after inspectors identified weaknesses during an earlier inspection.

That is the key finding of a progress review of services in Orkney published today by the Care Inspectorate.

It follows an earlier joint inspection carried out by the Care Inspectorate and partner organisations between August and October 2019 which identified significant weaknesses in the way services were led and delivered.

The 2019 inspection set out five priority areas for improvement needed across services that work with children and young people in need of care and protection and their families in Orkney.

Inspectors recently returned to check on the progress being made.

The Progress Review found that “during late 2019 and the first months of 2020, the partnership was slow to develop an effective response to the areas for improvement that had been identified.”

But inspectors found that from summer 2020 onwards, the pace of change was stepped up, and improvements were beginning to be made.

The Progress Review notes: “As a result of the changes that were introduced during this latter period, we were able to identify that improvements had been made or were well underway.

“More effective leadership and planning was now driving change.

“However, because many of the changes were only introduced relatively recently, we also concluded that it was too early to be sure of their impact.

“There was a need to further develop consistency of practice and improve the involvement of children and families in decision making about their lives.”

Peter Macleod, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “Partners in Orkney are now making encouraging progress in responding to the areas for improvement identified by the previous inspection.

“Key processes in responding to children in need of protection have been improved and policies and procedures to support practice have been updated.

“Partners need to maintain this recent momentum in order to sustain the improvements that have been made and the change that has been achieved.

“The Care Inspectorate and its scrutiny partners will continue to monitor progress and offer support for improvement to community planning partners in Orkney.

“Over the next year, we would expect to see the changes that have been made being consolidated and added to so that they can be sustained over time. We would also expect partners to evidence the positive effect of these changes on the lives of children in need of protection in Orkney.”

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Notes to editors

The report is available here: https://bit.ly/3zeVBii