Joint inspection of services to protect children and young people in the South Ayrshire council area

We have published our joint inspection report on the protection of children and young people in the South Ayrshire council area.

The inspection included services provided by health agencies, the police, the local authority and Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, as well as those provided by voluntary and independent organisations.  Joint inspection reports give an evaluation of the effectiveness of services using a published quality indicator framework focusing on 6 key areas:

1. how well children and young people are listened to, understood and respected;
2. how children and young people benefit from strategies to minimize harm;
3. how children and young people are helped by the actions taken in immediate response to concerns;
4. how well children’s and young people’s needs are met;
5. service improvements through self-evaluation; and
6. improvements in performance.

Services in the South Ayrshire Council area were given 4 evaluations of very good and 2 evaluations of good.

Inspectors found the following key strengths in how well children were protected and their needs met in the South Ayrshire Council area.

• Highly flexible support provided to meet children and families’ needs at an early stage.
• Staff sharing responsibility and working very well together to meet children’s needs and improve their future outcomes.
• Very effective work by staff to gain children and families’ trust and confidence.
• Clear leadership and direction which is motivating staff to make and sustain improvements.

Inspectors agreed with services in the council area the following points for improvement.

• Improve front-line police officers’ recognition of risks to children, ensuring information is shared promptly to allow risks and needs to be fully assessed.
• Continue to strengthen approaches to joint self-evaluation and ensure that these are informed by children and families’ views about the impact of the services they receive.
  
  We are confident that the services will be able to make the necessary improvements in light of the inspection findings.  As a result, we will make no more visits in connection with this inspection.  Our link inspector will maintain contact with services to support improvements.
  
  

• News
• 2012

Payment of PVG and Enhanced Disclosure Checks - Childminders

The Care Inspectorate can confirm, that PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups) checks for Childminders and Enhanced Disclosure checks will be carried out free, until 31 March 2012.

From 1 April 2012,  anyone applying to register as Childminder, will have to pay for their own PVG check (or scheme update for existing PVG members), the Enhanced checks for all residents over 16 living in their home and continue to pay for the checks of any Childminder Assistants they wish to help them with their business

Existing Childminders should be aware that they will from 1 April 2012 also be expected to pay for Enhanced Disclosure checks for anyone living in their home, when they become 16 or when anyone over 16 who becomes an occupant.

It is expected that ALL existing Childminders and their assistants will become PVG scheme members over the next 3/4 years. When Disclosure Scotland announce that they are accepting applications for 'retrospective' checking, we will issue information on how we are going to manage and process these applications.

If you are an existing childminder you are not eligible at this current time to apply to become a scheme member.

It is important to note that while these are additional costs to Childminders, the Scottish Government continues to heavily subsidise the Registration and Continuation fees for Childminders in Scotland.

• News
• 2012