Highland Council rebuffs calls for an independent inquiry into systematic bullying, violence, substance misuse and child protection concerns in children's care service instead settling for an external review

AN independent probe has been launched into residential care for young people in the Highlands.

The move comes after concerns highlighted how staff in one care setting lacked skills and experience, leading to “challenging behaviour spiralling out of control”.

That was the assessment of a Care Inspectorate investigation completed in June into the Leault unit in Abriachan by Loch Ness, which is operated by Highland Council.

Councillor Glynis Campbell-Sinclair has been dealing with a number of complaints from young people previously placed in care in the Highlands and their families and believes a fuller investigation is necessary.

“Listening to care experienced young people recounting their experiences of Highland Council residential child care was harrowing in the extreme,” she told the Highland News.

“As a mother and a grandmother I felt distraught that in this day and age, in Highland, vulnerable children and young people are experiencing and being exposed to inhuman behaviours.

“I advised the chief executive Donna Manson and executive chief officer Fiona Duncan of serious concerns relating to Highland Council residential child care in August of this year and requested, given the seriousness of these allegations, that an external investigation must be considered.”

She believes the current external review does not go far enough and is calling for “a comprehensive independent investigation”, the findings of which will be made public.

Cllr Campbell-Sinclair plans to raise her concerns over the issue at a full meeting of the council today.

Leault provides medium to long-term therapeutic care for children and young people whose needs cannot be met within a family as well as “a safe, nurturing and therapeutic environment” for youngsters with challenging behaviours.

The HN has spoken to one former resident who said she had resorted to self-harm.

Now the council has appointed an outside investigator “to review and assess practice within children’s residential services”.

In its report on Leault, the Care Inspectorate said: “We received information from staff, social workers and other professionals, including the police, about serious incidents involving young people who stayed at Leault over the last 18 months.

“There were examples of systematic bullying among young people, violence to young people and staff, absconding, substance misuse and child protection concerns.

“Both staff and social workers told us they were concerned about the physical and emotional wellbeing of young people during this turbulent time.”

The report also noted a “high level of serious incidents in Leault”, with 36 violent incident reports submitted since April 1 this year. There have been 29 submitted for Arach over the same time period.

“There were times the staff team lacked the skills, experience and underpinning therapeutic framework to provide structure and stability to cope with the very complex needs and challenging behaviour of young people,” inspectors said.

“This often led to challenging behaviour spiralling out of control and staff relying on a police presence to diffuse the situation.

“This meant at times they were unable to provide emotional containment or use their authority appropriately.”

The former resident told the HN: “I was left to bleed through four to five bandages overnight, but a carer refused to take me to A&E because she had ‘seen worse’ despite myself and another young person begging her to do something. She went back into the staff bedroom and closed the door.”

She was seen by a clinician the next day, she said.

She also made allegations about other young people being pushed by a carer.

Another young woman placed in the system by a parent in a bid to protect her from a chaotic and abusive home life, described the impact on her as “awful”, claiming “it destroyed me”.

“I got put into care so I would not get beaten up but that was still happening and the emotional abuse was still there [in care],” she said.

“They [staff] would emotionally abuse me, they would say if you don’t behave like this or that then we will send you away to Glasgow – they said that so many times to try and frighten me.

“They say Leault is a therapeutic care home, are you joking? I don’t know how to put it – it was just chaotic.”

A Highland Council spokesman said an external review has now started work to assess practice within children’s residential services.

“This is standard social work practice and reflects approaches regularly employed across Scottish local authorities to identify opportunities for learning and illustrates the council’s commitment to continuous improvement,” he said.

Highland Council installed a new management team at Leault in October last year after being made aware of “the difficulties being experienced within the service” and it has laid out a development plan since the inspection in June.

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