Joint inspection of services for children and young people in Falkirk published
An inspection of services for children and young people in Falkirk has identified areas of good performance but also made recommendations for improvement.
The inspection was led by the Care Inspectorate working in partnership with Education Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland.
The joint inspection of services for children and young people in the Falkirk Community Planning Partnership area took place in November and December 2015. It covered the range of partners in the area that have a role in providing services for children, young people and families.
Across nine key indicators of performance, inspectors rated five as ‘good’ and four as ‘adequate’.
In their report, inspectors noted: “We are confident that the experienced and dedicated workforce is having a positive impact on the experiences of children, young people and families in Falkirk.
“A sustained focus on operational planning in partnership with the third sector means that children, young people and families benefit from some effective and flexible services.
“Staff are firmly committed to working collaboratively to keep children safe from harm and the response to concerns about their safety are prompt and effective for all but a few.
“Multi-agency planning and reviewing arrangements are working well for the majority of vulnerable children and young people.
“We found examples of positive approaches aimed at tackling inequalities and closing outcome gaps, but limited measures to demonstrate progress.
“Partners can demonstrate that the performance of services is leading to improvements in some aspects of children’s wellbeing. The outcomes for some groups of vulnerable children and young people, including those who are looked after, are more variable and affected by some long-standing gaps in services. ”
Partners need to use performance data better to jointly monitor practice and progress and inform strategic planning.
Karen Reid, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “Protecting young people and ensuring that the services they and their families use are of the very highest standard is crucial.
“Overall, there are several positive findings from this inspection. There is successful development of systems, culture and practice in support of implementing the Getting it Right for Every Child approach.
“We saw that managers work well together to find solutions and respond to challenges. Partnership working is providing an effective early response to protect children and young people at risk of immediate harm.
“The commitment of staff and managers and history of strong partnership working provide essential building blocks to developing excellent services for children and young people in Falkirk.
“However, going forward, strong collective leadership will be required to challenge traditional ways of working to enable partners to build on their successes and deliver sustainable improvement and change.”
Inspectors made five recommendations for improvement, which were that the Falkirk partnership should:
- Implement an agreed set of outcome measures that will deliver improvements in the wellbeing of children and young people, and close outcome gaps through early intervention and prevention.
- Ensure that partners harness and maximise their collective resources in planning and developing services and that these plans are underpinned by robust performance management and use of data to drive improvements.
- Provide stronger accountability and governance that drives improvements and increases the pace of change.
- Establish a shared vision for corporate parenting at the highest level across the partnership
- Ensure that the involvement of children, young people and families and other stakeholders is fully integrated into service planning and development.
The full report can be found here: http://cinsp.in/FalkirkJointReport
