To ask the Scottish Executive when the report of the Joint Independent Inquiry on Kerelaw Residential School and Secure Unit will be published.
The Report of the Independent Inquiry on Kerelaw Residential School and Secure Provision is published today. A copy has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 48089).
The Scottish Government welcomes the thorough and comprehensive report which has been completed by Mr Eddie Frizzell and his team.
Glasgow City Council also deserves praise for its willingness to submit its management of Kerelaw and its subsequent handling of the closure of Kerelaw School to independent and detailed scrutiny.
I will be writing to all relevant agencies to urge them to consider carefully how they will use the findings and recommendations contained within the report to evaluate their services and to take any necessary action to ensure their responsibilities for the care and protection of children are being met fully.
The Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council accept the recommendations in full.
Three of the 37 recommendations require specific action by the Scottish Government but we will support all our partners to implement all of the recommendations.
1. Listening to Children
1.1 The report makes clear that some children within Kerelaw communicated their unhappiness in a variety of ways. Some made complaints directly to the Kerelaw management and others to their social worker. Some were acted on but this was not systematic. There are two recommendations which call for action by the Scottish Government. The first is to develop a national mechanism to gather, collate and analyse complaints about residential child care. At present, the Care Commission investigates complaints made about all the services it regulates and discussions take place between the inspectorates and other relevant parties where there is a perception of risk. However, the Scottish Government welcomes the opportunity to explore with these parties how this process could be better developed to provide improved information at a national level.
1.2 The second recommendation calls for the Scottish Government to review the funding of advocacy services. The funding of advocacy services is largely the responsibility of each local authority and NHS board. Nevertheless, there is a need to review the provision of advocacy services to all children. I have therefore commissioned a national survey to identify the access, availability and funding of services to children. We will seek to publish this by the end of the 2009.
1.3 The Kerelaw Report discusses the important role of inspection to ensure that a provider of residential child care has robust arrangements for listening and acting on concerns expressed by the child. External scrutiny through the regular HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) and the twice yearly Care Commission inspections, together with the overview provided by Social Work Inspection Agency in its performance management inspections will review complaints procedures and the provision of children''s advocates and children''s rights officers and how effective these are. External inspections also provide the opportunity for children to raise any matter of concern during an inspection. I am aware that the Care Commission has recently reviewed its methodology to better reflect the views of young people, their families/carers and other visiting professionals. I expect all the inspectorates to keep this issue under continual review and ensure that action is taken if the evidence is not available that children are listened to appropriately.
1.4 An important recommendation is made to providers to ensure that staff are clear when it is safe and appropriate to use restraint methods. In 2008, the Care Commission reported on how the guidance Holding Safely and recommended some improvements. These are being considered by a working group of providers, supported by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care and the Care Commission. The initial focus is on secure care but the Scottish Government will ask it to expand its discussions to consider restraint in the other residential child care settings.
1.5 I am also pleased to note the important recommendation on record keeping which builds on those made in November 2007 by Tom Shaw''s Historical Abuse in Residential Child Care 1950-1995. Last year, the Keeper of the Records of Scotland commissioned a review of the current records legislation. Evidence was obtained from a wide sector, ranging from those involved in working with records to those who sought access to information about themselves. The review also examined current records management practice and legislation both in the UK and overseas. The Keeper will submit his recommendations to the Scottish Government in the near future.
2. Improving the Quality of Leadership and Management
2.1 There are many hundreds of dedicated and committed residential child care staff. However, there is a long-standing concern that the sector has not moved quickly enough to ensure that its entire staff have the knowledge, skills and professional support to fulfil this challenging role.
2.2 The Kerelaw report has welcomed the Scottish Government''s action to set a deadline for the registration of all the residential child care staff who will work directly with children. While many staff have the relevant qualifications, too many do not. The requirement for registration will drive the increase in appropriately qualified staff and also ensure that residential child care providers provide the required investment, commitment and support to enable their staff to reach the required standards for registration.
2.3 The Scottish Government is supporting the residential child care sector to increase the knowledge and skills base of its staff but also to become more integrated within the wider children''s services workforce. The Continuous Learning Framework (CLF) was launched in December and is being implemented by the Scottish Social Services Council.
2.4 The framework sets out what the social services workforce of approximately 160,000 people need to be able to do their job well now and into the future and describes what employers need to do to support them. It aims to improve approaches to three key integrated areas: learning and development, career pathways and progression and improved standards of practice.
2.5 Another element of the CLF which is particularly important for work in residential child care are the personal qualities that individuals should possess. The CLF will support the local creation of person specifications and job descriptions which will address many of the concerns expressed in the report about the quality of leadership, management and training. In addition, a single common values statement on working with children will also be developed from later this year together with proposals for joint training and development across the children''s services workforce.
2.6 The National Residential Child Care Initiative, (NRCCI) which I launched last year, will report later in 2009. It is identifying where further progress can be made in relation to improving the skills and capacities of the residential child care workforce. I have also asked the NRCCI to build on the recommendations within the Kerelaw report, in particular how we strengthen leadership in the sector and the roles and responsibilities of external managers and board members.
3. The role of External Inspection
3.1 The Scottish Government agrees with the Kerelaw Report''s conclusion that external inspection must build on a strong culture of robust management which evaluates its own performance and is honest and open to change. The Report does not call for more or better inspection but it does make important observations with regard to improving the effectiveness of the follow up to their reports.
3.2 There is a good legislative basis for ensuring that providers act upon the findings of inspection, if this proves necessary. For example, the introduction of s99 to the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 has given the Registrar of Independent Schools the power to impose conditions to ensure that schools comply with recommendations made by HMIE to support change and improvement. Similarly, the Care Commission may impose requirements and recommendations, as well as take enforcement action, in respect of care services. Unannounced inspections are also a feature of inspection programmes.
3.3 The Scottish Government is about to introduce an ambitious programme of reform to the current scrutiny arrangements. A risk-based, proportionate approach by relevant inspectorates will continue to be required to complement self-evaluation by agencies. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of the recommendation within the Kerelaw Report to ensure that, when changes in external scrutiny of social care services take place from 2011, the new body has access to information gathered by previous inspections. I will ask Scottish Government officials to identify how we take forward the current good practice between inspectorates with regard to sharing relevant information into the new arrangements.
