CARE inspectors are expecting to see a big improvement when they scrutinise Dumfries and Galloway Council’s fostering and adoption service once again this week.
Assessors from the Care Inspectorate made short notice visits to the council’s social work offices in Irish Street, Dumfries, in November last year to review the work of the fostering and adoption service.
The inspectors were not satisfied with what they found, according to a report published on the Care Inspectorate website two months later.
In evaluating quality, the inspectors use a six point scale where one is unsatisfactory and six is excellent.
They graded the fostering and adoption services as:
– How well do we support people’s wellbeing? — unsatisfactory
– How good is our leadership? — unsatisfactory
– How good is our staff team? — weak
– How well is our care and support planned? — weak
A series of recommendations for improvement were made by inspectors, and they will returning again this week to conduct another review of the council’s adoption and fostering service.
The Care Inspectorate have confirmed this will be a full inspection, as opposed to a typical follow-up.
A report on the matter has been prepared for the council’s social work committee today. It states: “Understandably the impact of the inspection has been significant for the team, and individual team members, and the pressure they have felt over the first half of this year has been immense.
“Nevertheless, the team have worked both diligently, and positively, demonstrating an incredible resilience to take forward the improvement actions.”
Social work chiefs insisted that the findings were “accepted and taken seriously for both services”, but added that the assessment done was based on work with just three households each, across fostering and adoption.
They continued: “Notwithstanding this, improvement plans were developed robustly with a wide range of improvement measures covering the requirements and recommendations made by the Care Inspectorate.
“Good progress has been made in achieving the necessary changes, however this has been in a time of significant unprecedented pressures for the service.”
These pressures include an ongoing shortage of foster carers, staff shortages and capacity challenges due to maternity and medical absences, a further inspection of the supported lodgings service in May, and the development of the new kinship support service.
Meanwhile, the supported lodgings care service – which is managed by the same fostering and adoption staff team – received a positive report after being inspected in May this year.
