Inspectors praise work of Orkney child protection service

Child protection services in Orkney have been praised by government inspectors. An HM Inspectorate of Education report published today highlights good work in a number of key areas.

The rating for listening to and respecting children and helping them to keep safe was classified as very good, which highlights major strengths.

Inspectors said the response to immediate concerns, meeting needs and reducing long-term harm, self evaluation and improvements in performance is good, which means important strengths with areas for improvement.

Orkney’s Child Protection Chief Officers Group chairman Duncan MacAulay welcomed the “positive” report, which he says shows services have been improved over the last two years.

The report follows a review of services this summer during which time inspectors interviewed local children and families, as well as staff and managers of children’s services including Orkney Islands Council, NHS Orkney, Northern Constabulary, the Children’s Reporter and voluntary-sector organisations.

Improvements made to the service since the last inspection include better recording by social work staff, new joint child support plans, strengthened leadership by the child protection committee, and higher quality performance information and improvement planning.

Recommendations for improvement include strengthening efforts to provide better co-ordinated support to help children at an early stage, and ensuring health staff are trained and supported to become more fully and effectively involved in key child protection processes. The service has been told it must involve frontline staff more in evaluating cases and improving effectiveness of services.

Mr MacAulay said: “Our ratings in this report are all ‘goods’ and ‘very goods’, so overall this is a positive report with higher ratings than our 2007 report even though the bar has been raised.

“It demonstrates we have continued to improve child protection services since our last inspection two years ago, particularly in audit and inter agency working.

“However, we are not complacent, this is always challenging work, and difficult to get right for every individual child and family. We have recognised areas for future development which will be taken forward.”