Do We Finally Know Why Avonlea Children's Home In Wick Was Closed?

5th June 2024

The closure of the Avonlea children's home In Wick has been shrouded in secrecy since December 2022. A report to the Audit committee for the meeting on 13 June 2024 might give some clues although the home is not named. You will need to make your own mind up to consider if this latest paper is about the Wick children's home.

A report in the John O'Groat Journal described the closure but no reasons were given by Highland council
Read the article HERE

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has investigated.

Case 202206966, Child protection
The complaint was raised by a young person about their time at a residential unit. The SPSO agreed the following heads of complaint with the complainant:
a) The Council failed to take appropriate action in response to the safeguarding concerns raised about the unit manager in August and September 2022 (upheld)
b) The Council failed to adequately investigate abusive messages from a former member of staff and a breach of confidentiality (upheld)
c) The Council unreasonably failed to keep C informed about the closure of the unit (not upheld)
d) The Council failed to handle C's complaints in accordance with their complaints procedures (upheld)
5.2
The SPSO was satisfied that the complainant had been kept reasonably informed about the position of the future of the unit and did not uphold this part of the complaint. However, there were some failings in relation to communication and record-keeping in response to the safeguarding concerns raised. There were also failings in the investigation into abusive messages from a former member of staff and in the complaints handling. Therefore, the SPSO upheld these parts of the complaint (shown in brackets in the paragraph above).
5.3
The SPSO asked the Council to apologise to the complainant for the specific failings identified in respect of the complaints and the following recommendations were made:
• Safeguarding concerns should be communicated appropriately and in line with safeguarding guidance and clear and accurate records should be maintained.
• Staff in the unit should be aware of the issues regarding the use of social media highlighted by this case.
• The Council should maintain clear and accurate records of discussions and meetings that take place, in line with required standards.
• Complaint responses should comply with the Model Complaints Handling Procedure and council staff should be familiar with the complaints handling procedure. Complaint investigations should be clearly recorded at each stage and responses provided within 20 working days. If this is not possible, the complainant must be updated on the reason for the delay and provided with a revised timescale.
5.4
These recommendations have now been implemented.

Read the committee paper HERE