Inspectors worried by violence at Crosshill children's home

Following an unannounced visit to Crosshill, which recently moved into a newly-built facility, watchdogs highlighted incidents where young people living there did not feel safe.

It is the third inspection by the Care Inspectorate in recent months of residential units for young people in Inverclyde which has highlighted areas of concern.

In response social work bosses say they have take action to improve and made immediate changes.

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In the inspection report the Care Inspectorate said: "In the time since the last inspection there were periods when young people did not feel safe.

"There have been regular incidents when staff and young people experienced high levels of aggression and/or violence. 

"There were examples of some young people exhibiting physical symptoms of stress, their sleep suffering and opting to remain in their bedrooms to stay safe. 

"Some young people have experienced trauma in their earlier years and these care experiences have the potential to compound existing trauma."

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The report stated that these concerns were responded to appropriately by staff and efforts were made to offer support and seek a solution. 

However, they added that there was a lack of timely, effective action taken.

They said that in one example, this contributed to what they called extremely poor outcomes.

The Care Inspectorate also highlighted concerns about the admission process of young people to the service.

The report added: "Consequently, we had concerns about the admission process of young people to the service and the subsequent planning that did not reflect needs or risks.

"This highlighted difficulties regarding how the capacity of the service is managed alongside the demands placed on the service."

As a result of these incidents inspectors instructed bosses to consider their wider response to increasing demands on service capacity, and make efforts to consider service provision for older young people who have particularly complex and challenging needs.

In response to the inspection a report by the chief officer Kate Rocks will now be put to the social work and social care scrutiny panel.

Councillors are told that the incident in the inspection report related to a short period of time in summer 2022.

Since then management have been actively seeking placements for older young people from external providers in the independent and third sector, as well as with housing providers as appropriate.

Additional posts have also been created within the team for looked after children to provide enhanced support to young people seven days per week. 

Inverclyde HSCP will now allocate a continued care support worker to young people to help them with independent living.

In addition all three children's homes in Inverclyde now have a child planning and improvement officer to hold regular reviews to help young people towards greater independence.

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Crosshill staff were praised for their warm and positive relationships with those in their care, as well as the support offered for physical and mental health.

They were also hailed for being proactive in helping young people to access new opportunities and experiences.

Inspectors also recognised the positive educational outcomes of the children in their care.

The inspectors graded Crosshill as 'good' during the evaluation on how well children and young people's rights and wellbeing are supported.

This follows an inspection 12 months previously where there were four areas of improvement were identified