The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing presented a report which outlined the Action Plan following the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) inspection of Maple Tree House in October 2020.

The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services advised that CIW undertook a focussed inspection at Maple Tree House on 28th October 2020; the full inspection report is attached at Appendix 1. A verbal update was provided to the committee following this but at that time the final inspection report had not been received. He Inspection was carried out to test the outstanding non-compliance raised at the previous three inspections in September 2019, February 2020 and August 2020, relating to wellbeing, care and support and leadership and management of the service. The service was deemed a service of concern and a notice of decision was issued to restrict admissions.

The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services stated that there were no areas identified in the inspection where improvement was required. And highlighted an extract of the findings made by CIW. They found that there had been positive changes and developments to processes and structures and to some of the internal systems supporting staff to care for young people. The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services added that a comprehensive Action Plan was developed by the Service in 2019 to address identified areas of non-compliance from previous Inspections which had now been completed and was a contributing factor to the changes made.

The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services added that they now had the Behaviour Analyst employed 4 days a week which had helped embed the structures in place to support the environment needed for children to thrive. He added that a goal of the service was to continue to make improvements year on year and even with the challenge that comes from Maple Tree House in terms of its location, he believed that improvements could still be made to ensure that it was providing the best service possible.

The Leader welcomed the report and said it was pleasing to see the rapid improvements being made in such a short space of time. He personally thanked the staff at Maple Tree House for their commitment to the children and the services provided. The Cabinet Member Wellbeing and Future Generations echoed the comments made by the Leader and it was pleasing to see that Maple Tree House was able to bounce back from the challenges it was facing. The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services stated that it was indeed the team and their commitment that made the changes possible.

A Member mentioned that the failings of Maple Tree House were headlined in the local papers. She asked how we have promoted the changes and improvements since then as well as reassuring potential future users of the service. The Group Manager – Placement and Provider Services explained that it was always a challenge to promote a place whereby it was many vulnerable children’s homes and therefore did not want to give out too much information. He explained that the service was recently promoted through a presentation through ADSS Cymru and taking opportunities like this when they arise was always the best way to promote the services.

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing stated that they would be submitting a social care accolade application with the aim of further promoting the positive work that had been carried out. She added that rota visits were aimed to be reintroduced when safe to do so as this was a very important part of the quality assurance process.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the content of the Inspection report and received and approved the updated action plan