Child protection at Scots secure unit 'consistently compromised'

St Mary's was given the lowest possible rating of one out of six by inspectors

Child protection at a Scottish secure unit was "consistently compromised", a watchdog has ruled.

Inspectors found young people at St Mary's Kenmure in East Dunbartonshire were often subject to high levels of physical restraint "disproportionate" to the risk they possessed and that only police intervention had prevented "incredibly serious outcomes".

The Bishopbriggs facility was ordered by the Care Inspectorate earlier this month to stop accepting new admissions due to "a serious risk" to the life of residents there.

The full inspection into the unit has now been published, with St Mary's stating it would take "all steps necessary" to act on the findings.

The report gave St Mary's the lowest possible rating of one out of six, and listed a number of failings, including that there was "a lack of robust governance around child protection and safeguarding."

The inspectors stated: "Young people were subject to or witnessed unnecessarily high levels of physical restraint and restrictive practice."

This contributed to a "reactive" culture where restraint was "disproportionate to the risks faced".

It added: "People had been harmed in the process of using restraint and there was no documented evidence to inform a culture of learning from significant incidents."

'Unsafe situations'

Other problems included "dangerously low" staffing levels, toilet water running into bedrooms from the showers and door security being regularly breached by people there.

The low number of staff created "unsafe situations where without the involvement of the police there could have been incredibly serious outcomes," the report stated.

The facility cares for a maximum of 24 people.

Other concerns

Another concern noted was that there some of the young people did not have their medication administered on a regular basis, while poor record keeping and "inconsistent" care plans were also discovered.

"Repeated examples" were found of care plans not being followed, placing both staff and young people "at significant risk of harm".

A prior decision to open five houses around the unit had been made without "sufficient analysis" of staffing and service levels.

A previous inspection in November 2023 saw inspectors request four requirements for improvement along with a further "area for improvement".

However, by the time of the follow-up inspection, which took place over five days in September and October this year, none of the five requests had been met.

The report did note that there were examples of "compassionate care and support" from staff to young people and that there were good examples of young people achieving in school.

'An important foundation'

A spokesman for St Mary's said the report had noted "significant change at both board and director level" recently that would help the unit take on board the recommended improvements.

He told BBC Scotland News: "The management and staff of St Mary’s, Kenmure, recognise the need to improve the quality of care and protection of our children.

"As the Care Inspectorate’s report states: ‘Prior to this inspection, there had been significant change at both board and director level. This offered us some assurance about the service's capacity for improvement’.

"We take the protection of our children very seriously and will take all steps necessary to meet the requirements outlined in the Care Inspectorate's report which we believe provides an important foundation on which to build.”