News

A number of improvements have been made in Scotland’s social services departments, according to the chairperson of the Accounts Commission.

Alastair MacNish said: "There has been an increase in the proportion of staff in children's homes with an appropriate qualification, more children in residential care have a single room and more social enquiry reports are being prepared for the courts on time."

The proportion of staff with appropriate qualifications in children’s homes rose from less than 45 per cent to 47.4 per cent, according to the report. The number of staff in homes for adults rose from 989 in 1997/8 to 1,221 in 1999/2000, and of these staff nearly 39 per cent held an appropriate qualification.

But in local authority homes for older people, the number of directly employed staff has continued to fall with the increasing use of a range of providers for residential care. There was also variation between councils in the proportion of staff with appropriate qualifications.

The number of residential places for older people and children have dropped in the past few years. For older people, there has been a reduction of 1,700 places since 1996/7 to around 16,100.

There was little change in the number of children being looked after by local authorities in Scotland. But the number looked after either at home or in the community had risen from 83 per cent to 86 per cent, which the report found ‘encouraging’.

The report found that just over three quarters of the social enquiry reports requested by the courts were allocated within two days.