Every year, internal auditors report on the care provided at Child, Youth and Family residences. The reports detail where we’re achieving a high standard, and more importantly, areas that should be improved. We welcome this external eye – while we work hard to provide a high-level of quality care to children and young people, we’re always looking to evolve our practice in tandem with their growing needs. This year we’re publishing the summary reports for the first time – another important step in being more open and transparent about our work and the improvements made to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. From now on, the summary reports will be published on our website every year. The vast majority of our work in residences involves providing nurturing care – something our children or young people may not have experienced all their lives. The job often requires quick decision-making, and assessing every child or young person differently – their needs are unique to them. We expect our staff to do this while acting within the regulations. Many of our residences were found to have outstanding examples of practice. These include a high standard of care plans and involvement of family in their development; an excellent standard of nutrition; comprehensive health and education practices – it goes without saying these resulted from strong communication between professionals; timely medical examinations upon entry to residence; life skills development, a range of programmes and activities; and a robust grievance process.
Areas for improvement include the administration of medication – particularly around record keeping; the management of secure care; communication between health and residential staff; frequency of evacuation exercises; consistency in applying the behavioural management system; including families more in decision making – particularly to do with care plans; staff turnover; and staff training and professional development. The inspection reports range in length from 60 to 80 pages. They contain a lot of legislative jargon and detail on each of the over 50 regulations containing more than 350 provisions which our residences are expected to meet each year. As such, we have developed summary inspection reports which highlight key issues, areas of strength, areas for improvement and Child, Youth and Family’s service delivery response to the areas for improvement. These summary reports are more helpful than the original inspections reports because they have been condensed to capture the key elements each report.The audits are of immense help to us. Many of our residences have improved greatly over the years because of them. We’re committed to getting it right.