HMIE Report on Child Protection Services in Highland

The HMIe Services for Children Inspectorate, publish a report today (Thursday) commending the “effective performance” of services for children in Highland, which they say have “improved outcomes for vulnerable children and their families”.
 
This is a report of a follow-through inspection of child protection services, which took place in February 2008.  HMIe are visiting all Scottish local authority areas, and this is the second follow-through report to be published.  It confirms that “services were well placed to work together to continue to improve child protection services”. 
 
Having already published two positive reports of child protection services in Highland, the new HMIe report highlights:

The report concludes that: “As a result of the effective performance shown by services in taking forward improvements, HMIe will make no further visits.”
 
Alistair Dodds, Chair of the Highland Child Protection Committee, who is Chief Executive of  The Highland Council, said: “Previous inspection reports have found that Highland’s children were well protected, but also identified some areas for improvement.  It is hugely rewarding, and a tribute to staff across all of the agencies, to receive this endorsement of continuous improvement from HMIe.”
 
Councillor Liz MacDonald, Chair of Highland’s Joint Committee on Children, said: “It’s great to have confirmation and acknowledgement that we have good services for children here in Highland.  This report evidences the excellent work being done by staff to promote the protection of Highland’s children.”
 
Pam Courcha, Vice-chair of the Joint Committee and member of the NHS Highland Board, said: “This report shows good joined up working in Highland.  It also shows the significant awareness of the public’s responsibilities to work with agencies to help keep children safe.”
 
The report will be presented to The Highland Council on Thursday 26 June.

The report is available here.