Hazelwood

Hazelwood Drive Childrens Residential Centre
North Western Health Board

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Executive Summary

1. 9 Hazelwood Drive was a pleasant house, in show home condition and was indistinguishable from any other house in the area.
2. The centre provided a relaxed, warm atmosphere. This was largely attributable to a very caring staff group, who constituted a cohesive and committed team that worked well together.
3. Care staff at 9 Hazelwood Drive were very supportive of young people's education.
4. The centre provided good quality food, providing variety and choice. Young people were healthy, active and able to lead relatively normal lives. The standard of primary care was good.
5. Inspectors were impressed by a particular observation of one child's interaction with other children in the neighbourhood.
6. Although many care staff did not hold professional qualifications recognised by the Department of Health & Children, most had received other training which, whilst not equivalent, was of help to them in their work. Inspectors were impressed by the health board's plans to assist care staff in completing their professional training. Attention needs to be given to the quality and range of in-service training opportunities.
7. Inspectors found Donegal community care area's imaginative approach to independent care reviews commendable.
8. Inspectors considered the officer-in-charge model recently introduced in the centre to have great potential.
9. Inspectors found areas of record-keeping that need improvement.
10. There was an urgent need for the care plan for one of the young people to be reviewed. In looking elsewhere for solutions, care staff were inclined to under-estimate the excellent work that they had been doing. An up-to-date care plan would help put their concerns into a broader context and reveal the progress that the young person had actually made whilst being in their care.
11. Donegal community care area need to ensure that continuity of social work input and support is maintained.
12. There was a lack of policy relating to the use of physical restraint, complaints, leaving care and aftercare support, admissions and confidentiality. In addition, lack of effective arrangements for monitoring meant that the health board was not ensuring that its existing policies were being properly implemented.
13. The centre needed to provide information to children and parents about the work carried on at 9 Hazelwood Drive.
14. Communication within health board management needed to be improved. Child care and child protection reviewing systems were not well integrated. Better co-ordination of these was indicated.
15. The health board needed to ensure that requirements of the Child Care Regulations 1995 were being properly complied with, particularly in relation to monitoring, care planning and review.
16. Overall, inspectors considered that the centre provided good care for the young people and saw that there were some things that 9 Hazelwood Drive Children's Residential Centre did very well indeed. However, inspectors did find areas for improvement and these have been identified within the report.