24 January 2012
2 reports on the care of looked after children are being published today:
- Care Inspectorate’s Independent Inspection of Service for Looked After Children
- Children’s Policy Group’s Service Improvement Plan
The Care Inspectorate is the independent scrutiny and improvement body for care, social work and child protection services in Scotland. The Children’s Policy Group (CPG) commissioned a report in response to a recommendation of the 2008 Williamson Inquiry into Child Protection Services.
The Care Inspectorate, which started work in January 2011, is the first independent inspection to focus on services for looked after children in Jersey, as opposed to broader aspects of services for children.
The inspectors found some areas of services to be adequate or good, and some to be in need of improvement. In total they made 14 recommendations, all of which have been adopted by the CPG and included in their Service Improvement Plan.
The Interim Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, Jacquie Roberts, said “We identified some areas for improvement. For example the need to gather the views of looked after children and young people and the need to develop a more systematic and comprehensive approach to service planning. That said, we also found areas of strength and evidence of good outcomes for some groups of children and young people.
"Perhaps most importantly we have concluded that while improvements are needed, there is a real capacity to improve and a very clear commitment to do so. We believe that the work already underway means Jersey is in a good position to be able to quickly develop fully modernised services for all its Looked After Children."
The Chair of the Children’s Policy Group, Deputy Anne Pryke, said “Our services for Looked After Children are undergoing a complex process of change and this inspection provides a valuable snapshot of how we were doing 12 months ago.
"There are clearly some very positive findings such as the commitment, experience and skill of our staff plus our ability to work with other agencies for the benefit of our children and young people. However, there are also a number of areas where improvement is required, including the need to listen more to children and to improve communication with our staff.
"While we have made progress in these areas in the last year, there is still work to be done, as highlighted in the Care Inspectorate’s recommendations and our Service Improvement Plan.
“We invited the Care Inspectorate to undertake this work to ensure we could be measured against the high standards used in other jurisdictions. We’d like to thank them for their clarity about our progress and the support they have provided in helping us identify our future focus."
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