South Ayrshire Social Care Partnership is criticised over long delays to family's kinship care assessment

dailyrecord.co.uk:

South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership has apologised to a family for the lengthy delay in progressing their kinship care assessment.

Ayrshire Live can reveal that the organisation was placed under scrutiny by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) following a complaint made against them.According to the SPSO, the HSCP failed to progress a kinship care placement “timeously” and they failed to take “reasonable steps” to facilitate family contacts for a child at the centre of the case.Ayrshire Live has learned that the process to finalise kinship care took “several years.”The child’s name has been redacted by the final SPSO report and is known only as ‘B.’ The complainer was known as ‘C.’SPSO papers said: “C complained on behalf of their relative (A) and A’s child (B) about the health and social care partnership, of which the council administered the complaint investigation.

B was removed from A’s care. Following a short period of kinship care by B’s grandparent, they were placed with foster carers.

C and their partner applied to be B’s kinship carers as soon as B was taken into care. However, they were not made B’s kinship carers until several years later.”The Ayrshire Live app is available to download now.Get all the local news in your area – plus features, football news and the latest on the coronavirus crisis – at your fingertips 24/7.The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories while you can customise your page with the sections that matter to you.The Ayrshire Live app is available to download now on iOS and Android.According to SPSO papers the complainer said the partnership had 'unreasonably delayed' the process in assessing their kinship care application.C also