Inspections of Services for Children and Young People by the Care Inspectorate
Perth and Kinross Council · 28 October 2024
Back to Executive Sub-Committee of the Learning and Families Committee — 28 October 2024 and its agenda
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Perth and Kinross Council Executive Sub-Committee of Learning and Families Committee 28 October 2024 INSPECTIONS OF SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE BY THE CARE INSPECTORATE Report by Strategic Lead – Children, Families and Justice (Report No. 24/297) 1. PURPOSE 1.1 This report sets out the key findings following the unannounced inspection of Perth and Kinross Council’s Wellbank House in July 2024 by the Care Inspectorate. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1 It is recommended that the Committee: • Considers and comments as appropriate on the contents of the report. 3. STRUCTURE OF REPORT 3.1 This report is structured over the following sections: • Section 4: Background • Section 5: Recently Published Reports • Section 6: Conclusion • Appendices 4. BACKGROUND 4.1 Care Inspectorate Inspections 4.1.1 The Care Inspectorate was created by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. The Act sets out general principles for the Care Inspectorate’s inspection and improvement functions. These are: • The safety and wellbeing of all persons who use, or are eligible to use, any social service is to be protected and enhanced; • The independence of those persons is to be promoted; • Diversity in the provision of social services is to be promoted with a view to those persons being afforded choice; and • Good practice in the provision of social services is to be identified, endorsed and promoted.
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2 4.1.2 The Act places duties on the Care Inspectorate to make arrangements which will secure continuous improvement, to ensure user focus, and to co-operate with other specified scrutiny bodies. 4.1.3 From April 2018, the Health and Social Care Standards were used across Scotland to describe what people should experience from a wide range of care and support services. Since then, the Care Inspectorate have been rolling out a revised Quality frameworks and key question 7 for inspecting these services. 4.1.4 The quality framework is framed around six key questions. The first of these is: • How well do we support people’s wellbeing? To try and understand what contributes to wellbeing, there are four further key questions: • How good is our leadership? • How good is our staff team? • How good is our setting? • How well is care and support planned? The final key question is: • What is our overall capacity for improvement? This requires a global judgement based on evidence and evaluations from all other key areas. Under each key question, there are a small number of quality indicators. These have been developed to help answer the key questions. Each quality indicator has a small number of key areas, short bullet points, which make clear the areas of practice covered. 4.1.5 Where appropriate, selected key questions are graded overall on a six-point scale in which 1 = unsatisfactory, 2 = weak, 3 = adequate, 4 = good, 5 = very good and 6 = excellent. 4.1.6 Following an inspection, the Care Inspectorate may set out requirements or recommendations. Care service providers must submit an action plan to the Care Inspectorate addressing these. Progress against the action plan is monitored by the Care Inspectorate through annual return and self- assessment forms submitted by the care service provider and through subsequent inspection. 5. RECENTLY PUBLISHED REPORTS 5.1 The Care Inspectorate carried out the unannounced inspection on 2, 3, 4 July 2024 and was the first inspection of Wellbank House carried out under the new quality framework.
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3 5.1.1 Wellbank House provides housing support to young people aged between 16-24 years old in order that they gain the skills necessary for independent living. The provision has ten en-suite bedrooms as well as shared living places. The young people are referred to the service through Social Work, Education and Homeless services. 5.1.2 The inspection evaluated the How well do we support people’s wellbeing? as ‘very good’ and How good is our staff team? as ‘very good’. The questions of How good is our leadership?, How good is our setting? and How well is care and support planned? were not evaluated as part of this inspection. 5.1.3 It is particularly positive that the inspectors noted the quality of care and support offered to the young people and included some very positive comments from young people. This report is testament to the hard work of the staff, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic. 5.1.4 Wellbank House was first inspected in December 2008 and the last inspection was completed in May 2019, and reported to the Executive Sub- Committee of Lifelong Learning Committee on 28 October 2019. The previous grades can’t be shown for comparison as this is the first inspection using the new model with new key questions; therefore, it is not comparable. 6. CONCLUSION 6.1 The report by the Care Inspectorate provides further information on the standards and quality in our services and maintains a clear agenda for continuous improvement. Author Name Designation Contact Details Linda Richards Service manager FBSCommittee@pkc.gov.uk 01738 475000 Approved Name Designation Date Arun Singh Strategic Lead – Children, Families and Justice 07 October 2024
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4 ANNEX 1. IMPLICATIONS, ASSESSMENTS, CONSULTATION AND COMMUNICATION Strategic Implications Yes/None Community Plan/Single Outcome Agreement None Corporate Plan None Resource Implications Financial None Workforce None Asset Management (land, property, IST) None Assessments Equality Impact Assessment None Strategic Environmental Assessment None Sustainability (community, economic, environmental) None Legal and Governance None Risk None Consultation Internal None External None Communication Communications Plan None 1. Strategic Implications Community Plan/Single Outcome Agreement 1.1 This section sets out how the proposals relate to the delivery of the Perth and Kinross Community Plan/Single Outcome Agreement in terms of the following priorities: (i) Giving every child the best start in life; (ii) Developing educated, responsible and informed citizens; (iii) Promoting a prosperous, inclusive and sustainable economy; (iv) Supporting people to lead independent, healthy and active lives; and (v) Creating a safe and sustainable place for future generations. This report relates to Objective No. (i). Corporate Plan 1.2 This section sets out how the proposals relate to the achievement of the Council’s Corporate Plan Objectives: (i) Giving every child the best start in life; (ii) Developing educated, responsible and informed citizens; (iii) Promoting a prosperous, inclusive and sustainable economy; (iv) Supporting people to lead independent, healthy and active lives; and (v) Creating a safe and sustainable place for future generations.
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5 This report relates to Objective No. (i). 1.3 The report also links to the Education and Learning; and the Children, Families and Justice Services Vision, Values and Priorities in respect of the following key Priority area: • Care and Equity 2. Resource Implications Financial 2.1 N/A. Workforce 2.2 N/A. Asset Management (land, property, IT) 2.3 N/A. 3. Assessments Equality Impact Assessment 3.1 Under the Equality Act 2010, the Council is required to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between equality groups. Carrying out Equality Impact Assessments for plans and policies allows the Council to demonstrate that it is meeting these duties. 3.1.1 The proposals have been considered under the Corporate Equalities Impact Assessment process (EqIA) with the following outcome: (i) Assessed as not relevant for the purposes of EqIA. Strategic Environmental Assessment 3.2 The Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 places a duty on the Council to identify and assess the environmental consequences of its proposals. 3.2.1 The proposals have been considered under the Act; however, no action is required as the Act does not apply to the matters presented in this report. This is because the Committee are requested to note the contents of the report only and the Committee are not being requested to approve, adopt or agree to an action or to set the framework for future decisions. Sustainability
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6 3.3 Under the provisions of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, the Council has to discharge its duties in a way which contributes to the achievement of sustainable development. Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 the Council also has a duty relating to climate change and, in exercising its functions must act: • In the way best calculated to delivery of the Act’s emissions reduction targets. • In the way best calculated to deliver any statutory adaption programmes. • In a way that it considers most sustainable. 3.3.1 N/A. Legal and Governance 3.4 N/A. 3.5 N/A. Risk 3.6 N/A. 4. Consultation Internal 4.1 Service Managers within Education and Learning. External 4.2 N/A. 5. Communication 5.1 N/A. 2. BACKGROUND PAPERS 2.1 No background papers, as defined by Section 50D of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (and not containing confidential or exempt information) were relied on to a material extent in preparing the above report. 3. APPENDICES 3.1 Appendix 1 - Care Inspectorate Inspection of Wellbank House (4 July 2024)