Inspectors have identified key strengths and areas for improvement in the way children and young people at risk of harm are supported and cared for in Dundee.
The joint inspection of the Dundee City community planning partnership area took place between 12 July 2021 and 15 November 2021.
The Care Inspectorate leads joint inspections which focus on how well services worked together to improve the lives of children and young people who have experienced, or are at risk of, abuse and neglect.
Inspectors looked at how staff were working together across a range of services in the Dundee community planning partnership area, including social work, health and education staff, police officers, and children’s reporters.
In their report, inspectors identified key strengths across the Partnership.
They found: “most children in Dundee were being kept safe from harm by committed staff who effectively recognised and responded to concerns. This recognition of and response to harm remained as effective as the Covid-19 pandemic progressed.
“Children and young people felt safer as a result of the strong relationships they had with key members of staff. Staff made considerable efforts to sustain relationships with children and young people as the pandemic evolved.
“The collaborative approach throughout the partnership had resulted in the effective development and delivery of a range of multi-agency services that helped children at risk of harm and families to receive the support they needed.
“Senior leaders demonstrated effective and inclusive governance and accountability in their leadership of multi-agency child protection arrangements. Senior leaders continued to work together to effectively lead and direct staff as the Covid-19 pandemic progressed.”
However, inspectors also found areas for further improvement.
They highlighted that approaches to recognising and responding to concerns about risk of harm and providing support to young people were not as effective as those for younger children.
Resources to support children and young people with mental health or emotional wellbeing issues were limited and staff were not confident that children’s mental health needs were being fully met, inspectors said.
They also noted children and young people at risk of harm and their parents or carers were not consistently being supported to give their views in meetings.
Opportunities for children and young people at risk of harm to share their views and influence policy, planning and service delivery were limited.
The partnership did not yet have in place arrangements for the joint and systematic review of outcomes data in order to evidence the difference it was making to the lives of children at risk of harm and their families.
Peter Macleod, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said:
“The Care Inspectorate and its scrutiny partners are confident that partners in Dundee have the capacity to make changes to service delivery in the areas that require improvement.
“There is a strong culture of collaborative working throughout Dundee and partners have demonstrated that they can work together to make improvements to services.
“Partners had already identified areas for improvement in their position statement and had already started to take steps towards improvements in some of the areas we identified.
“Senior leaders and staff demonstrated a commitment to improving services to children, young people and their families at risk of harm.”
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Notes to editors
The report is available here.