Duty of Candour - Annual Report 2024-25 ECSPB
Renfrewshire Council · 15 May 2025
Back to Education and Children's Services Policy Board — 15 May 2025 and its agenda
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Page 1 of 6 To: Education and Children’s Services Policy Board On: 15 May 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Children’s Services ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Duty of Candour – Annual Report 2024-25 ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 All local authorities are required by the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 and related Regulations local authorities to have a Duty of Candour Policy in place. The Duty of Candour Policy ensures that local authorities are open, honest, and supportive where there is an unexpected or unintended incident resulting in harm or death to an individual using services which are registered with the Care Inspectorate or delivered by social work services. 1.2 Within Renfrewshire Children’s Services, the Duty of Candour extends to those services which are registered with and regulated by the Care Inspectorate and locality social work services. Therefore, the local authority internal provision of early learning and child-care services, children’s residential houses, the registered services in fostering and adoption services, the registered throughcare service and the locality social work services are required to report under the Duty of Candour. 1.3 Each local authority is required to publish an annual report on the Duty of Candour. The annual report sets out details on the number of incidents or events where the duty of candour is triggered, how the policy was followed in these incidents and any learning from the incidents. Local authorities are required to publish an annual duty of candour report even if there have been no adverse events which triggered the reporting. 1.4 The Renfrewshire annual report for 2024-5 is attached at appendix 1 for information. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that the Education and Children’s Services Policy Board:
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Page 2 of 6 [a] note that the annual duty of candour report for the period April 2024 to March 2025; and [b] note that there were no adverse incidents which constituted a duty of candour response during the period April 2025 to March 2025. ___________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 Care services registered with the Care Inspectorate and social work services in localities are covered by legislation in respect of the duty of candour. This duty is defined in the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 and related Regulations. In children’s services the following areas are required to report incidents under duty of candour: • early learning and childcare services (including these services based in schools); • residential children’s houses; • fostering and adoption service; • throughcare service; and • social work locality services in children and justice. 3.2 The Duty of Candour provisions set out a range of actions that need to happen when unexpected or unintended harm has occurred to someone using the services detailed in paragraph 3.1. The duty of candour policy indicates how the local authority should respond to such incidents in an open and transparent manner. It includes the process for making an “apology”, a statement of sorrow or regret in respect of the unintended or unexpected incident. 3.3 The unexpected incidents which are required to be reported under duty of candour include where someone using the service has died in the service, has sustained an injury which results in the permanent loss of bodily, sensory, motor, physiologic or intellectual functioning or these functions have been impaired for a period of more than 28 days. 3.4 Each local authority as an organisation is identified as a “responsible person” in terms of the legislation. Within Renfrewshire the “responsible person” function is discharged jointly by the Head of Education and the Head of Children and Justice Social Work. 3.5 The local authority is required to publish a report on the duty of candour as it applies to their services on an annual basis. The annual report should include information on the number of incidents raised under duty of candour and the learning from these as well as information on apologies issued. Local authorities are required to publish a “null” annual report if there have been no reported incidents under the duty of candour. 3.6 There have been no reportable incidents in Renfrewshire Children’s Services in the period April 2024 to March 2025. As such the annual report (attached at appendix 1 is a “null” report. ___________________________________________________________________
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Page 3 of 6 Implications of this report 1. Financial None. 2. HR and Organisational Development None. 3. Community/Council Planning None 4. Legal The publication of the duty of candour annual report satisfies the duties of the local authority under the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016. 5. Property/Assets None. 6. Information Technology None. 7. Equality and Human Rights The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. 8. Health and Safety Children’s Services operates to ensure that our establishments and services are compliant with health and safety procedures and legislation. The publication of the annual duty of candour report contributes to compliance. 9. Procurement None. 10. Risk Risks related to the delivery and management of services are regularly monitored and included in Renfrewshire Council’s Corporate and Strategic Risk Registers.
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Page 4 of 6 11. Privacy Impact None. 12. Climate Risk None. 13. Children’s Rights None. 14. Cosla Policy Position None. List of Background Papers ___________________________________________________________________ Children’s Services JT/KO 10042025 Author: John Trainer, Head of Children and Justice Social Work 0300 300 0277 john.trainer@renfrewshire.gov.uk
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Page 5 of 6 Appendix 1 Renfrewshire Council - Children’s Services Duty of Candour Report 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025 Within Scotland all health and social care services have a duty of candour as a legislative duty. The legislative duty is embedded in the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016. The legislation places a legal requirement on care services to ensure when things go wrong and mistakes happen, the people affected understand what has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for the future. The legislation requires all care providers to discharge an important part of the duty by publishing on an annual basis a report about duty of candour incidents in their services. This short report describes how our care service has operated the duty of candour during the time between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025. We hope you find this report useful. Renfrewshire Council Children’s Services directly provides a number of services which are registered with the Care Inspectorate children which are covered by the Duty of Candour. These services are: • early learning and childcare; • residential children’s houses: • fostering and adoption service; • throughcare service; and • social work locality services in children and justice. Renfrewshire Council Children’s Services operates 15 early learning and childcare centres and 22 early learning and childcare classes which are all registered with and regulated by the Care Inspectorate. Renfrewshire Council Children’s Services operates 4 children’s houses which are registered with and regulated by the Care Inspectorate. Renfrewshire’s fostering and adoption service and throughcare service are registered and regulated by the Care Inspectorate. Renfrewshire’s throughcare service is registered and regulated by the Care Inspectorate. All services which are registered and regulated are required to report any adverse incident which triggers a duty of candour response to the Care Inspectorate. Whilst locality social work services are not registered or regulated by the Care Inspectorate, they are covered by the duty of candour actions under the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016. 1. How many incidents happened to which the duty of candour applies? In the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025: • there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied in any of the early learning and childcare services
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Page 6 of 6 • there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied in any of our children’s houses • there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied in the fostering and adoption service • there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied in the through care service • there have been no incidents to which the duty of candour applied in any of the social work locality teams. 2. Information about our policies and procedures Children’s Services has a duty of candour policy which was reviewed in December 2023 and no amendments were required to be made to the policy. The policy details that where something has happened that triggers the duty of candour, our staff report this to their manager who has responsibility for ensuring that the duty of candour procedure is followed. When a member of staff raises a concern under the duty of candour, the manager records the incident and reports as necessary to the Care Inspectorate. When an incident has happened, the manager and staff set up a learning review. This allows everyone involved to review what happened and identify changes for the future. Where a duty of candour report is required for an individual event, the local manager reports this to the Head of Education Service for early years services and the Head of Children and Justice Social Work for our children’s houses, fostering and adoption services, throughcare services and locality social work services. As the duty of candour policy was reviewed in December 2023, the next review will be undertaken before the end of December 2026. The service will ensure all managers in relevant services have completed the duty of candour training before the end of March 2026. Emma Henry John Trainer Head of Education Head of Children and Justice Social Work/Chief Social Work Officer