'Life-saving' Ross-shire Women's Aid centre issues action plan after mixed report
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The Dingwall-based Ross-shire Women’s Aid centre has received a mixed inspection report from the Care Commission watchdog.
While the quality of care and support provided to abused women and their children was judged good, the quality of management and leadership was rated “adequate.”
One woman told inspectors that the service was a life-saver and she wished it would receive more funding.
However there were times when staff felt inadequately supported by management, said the report following the unannounced inspection. The report stated: “Since our last inspection there had been changes within the management team and this had impacted on the overall quality of service provision.
“The service provider acknowledged this was an area that they were under-performing in and as a result, an interim management team had recently been put in place. We met with the interim management team and noted that good progress was being made to address many areas we identified as needing improvement. We were also provided with a detailed action plan which identified immediate and future areas for improvement.
“As a result of our findings we concluded that the service was currently operating to an adequate standard. Should we have found that the recent management team were not making significant in-roads to address our concerns we would have graded the management and leadership as weak.
“When we spoke with staff, all said that they had been faced with many challenges and that there were times when they felt totally unsupported by management.”
It said staff continued to work in a dedicated and caring way, were well trained and experienced.
It added: “However, we were also aware that staff had been faced with a challenging time due to changes in the management of the service. This had clearly impacted on staff morale and a feeling of being unsupported at times. We have highlighted this as an area that needs to be improved on in the management and leadership theme in this report.”
Eight women who responded to the inspection questionnaires were happy overall with the quality of care and support provided.
During the inspection comments noted included: “The service from Women’s Aid is a life-saver”; “My care worker has supported me through the worst and shown me how far I have come,” and “I just wish they could get more funding so they can continue to provide this life-saving service.”
