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Care Inspectorate brands crisis service run by Highland Council 'weak' in key areas


By Alasdair Fraser

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Highland Council says an improvement plan has been put in place.
Highland Council says an improvement plan has been put in place.

A crisis service for young people and children has been criticised by inspectors for a series of failings.

Care at Arach House, near Strathpeffer, was rated “weak” in two of five key areas – leadership and setting.

The Care Inspectorate report also delivered significant criticisms in three other areas of the council-run service.

Arach House provides a crisis unit for up to two residents and an emergency unit for no more than four in need of temporary assistance.

There are maximum stays of 90 days and six months respectively for each unit, with a safe return home being the aim in most cases.

Outreach support is also provided.

There was praise for the “hard work and commitment” of the service’s manager and deputy, but inspectors criticised weak leadership, rating it at the second lowest level on a scale of one to six.

A development plan highlighted the manager’s drive to improve the service, but was said to lack detail on matters such as dealing with trauma.

There was also evidence the service had accommodated a young person without keeping proper records.

The report said the young person had been looked after by adults who were not employed in the service and not registered appropriately.

It also catalogued occasions of insufficient staff cover, including twice when a single staff member had to sleep over while a young person was resident.

It also found “some staff telling us they had not had regular supervision for months”.

A review of violent and serious incidents raised concerns there was little evidence of young people and staff being debriefed after such events.

Criticism of the setting included observations of boarded up windows and interior damage to the building, albeit made worse by lack of tradesman’s access and materials shortages during the pandemic.

Support for children and young people’s well-being was “adequate”, but some young people did not feel involved in their own care plans.

The strengths of the staff team were also assessed as “adequate”.

The report noted: “There were times when staff struggled to adequately support young people due to the nature of complex needs they presented.”

This had an impact on staff morale, with some of the care team describing themselves as traumatised, exhausted and overwhelmed.

Care support and planning was also “adequate” but the “complex needs of young people were not sufficiently detailed” in some personal plans.

The report added: “We saw little acknowledgement of young people’s comments or wishes in some of the planning documents with little encouragement for them to… take an active role…”

The service has been issued with a number of improvements to meet to deadline.

Earlier this year Highland Council admitted failing to provide a young person in residential care with adequate medical care after a severe self-harm incident.

The allegations stemmed from the treatment a teenager received while resident at Arach.

The most serious was that carers “inappropriately withheld medical supplies” to “dress a self-harm wound” when the young person refused to show the wound and instead went “to bed with a sock wrapped around their arm”.

In November, chairwoman of the council’s social care committee, Linda Munro, said she would refer the matter and claims about mistreatment made by several young people in another care facility, Leault near Loch Ness, to Police Scotland and the Child Protection Committee.

The matter was discussed at the chief officers group (COG) for Highland, which comprises the bosses of Highland Council, NHS Highland, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Highland Third Sector Interface and others.

A Highland Council spokesman said of the most recent report: “Through early engagement with the Care Inspectorate, prior to publication of their final report, there were a number of issues identified that resulted in an improvement plan being put in place. These issues have been/are being addressed.”


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