Significant achievements and progress have been made across services provided for children and young people by the City of Edinburgh Council.
A report highlighting the improvement plans for Children’s Services and Residential Services was discussed at the Education, Children and Families Committee last week.
The report detailed three recent positive Care Inspectorate reports covering foster care, adoption, and continuing care; residential care; and residential respite care for children with disabilities.
Also highlighted was the Council’s specialist disability foster care team who won a prestigious Fostering Excellence Award, recognising their exceptional contributions to foster care.
The Seaview care Home Service report stated that children and young people experienced warmth, sensitivity and respect and that the high quality environment provided safe therapeutic opportunities.
The Adoption Service report highlighted the positive work taking place with two ‘very good’ grades for how our children, young people, adults and their caregiver families experience compassion, dignity and respect and the health and wellbeing benefits they experience from the care and support provided by the service.
The committee report showed the progress being made in all areas of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan however in some areas it had not been as expected, this primarily related to delays in getting key staff into posts.
Cllr Joan Griffiths, Convener for Education, Children and Families at the City of Edinburgh Council, said:
It’s really heartening to hear about the positive progress being made in our Children’s Services. A consistent message highlighted by the inspectors was that children in our care felt loved and respected so great credit must go to our staff who have made this a reality.
The Care Inspectorate also recognised that we’re carrying out sector leading work to support young people to better understand their childhood journey through care. This can be really challenging and requires sensitivity and compassion so it’s welcome that we are regarded so highly, and on a national scale.
This has been an incredibly busy year for Children’s Services and everyone is committed to ongoing improvement. I want to thank everyone for the incredible work they have done – they really are making a real difference to the lives of Edinburgh’s children and young people.