SEVERAL young people living at a council-run home in Easterhouse "don't feel safe", a report has revealed. 

Youngsters told inspectors from a watchdog they "did not feel respected" and had concerns about the behaviour of other residents at Wellhouse RCU. 

The Glasgow City Council facility was branded as "weak" - the second lowest rating - by the Care Inspectorate, which criticised the Wellhouse Crescent venue for the leadership of staff and how it supported its children and young people's wellbeing. Six residents were living at the centre at the time of the visit. 

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While the findings have been contested by the local authority - which argued the report did not take into account the pandemic - council bosses have promised to put things right. 

Inspectors conducted an unannounced visit in July this year and said they had concerns young people were not always listened to. 

The report, published last week, detailed: We were concerned to hear that young people did not always feel listened to and that some felt unsupported by staff and did not like living in the house.

"In our discussions with a range of people involved with the service, we heard about perceived unfairness experienced by some young people, and this was evidenced through review of a large number of complaints made by young people in the past year.

"We felt that secure and valued relationships had not been experienced by some young people living at the service."

However, the report did recognise the hard work being done by staff to try to nurture relationships. 

But it added: "Staffing changes throughout the past inspecting year had impacted significantly on the continuity of relationships for young people."

It was also found that not all young people living at the centre had completed a missing person profile but that all were registered with a GP. 

"Overall, we felt that there were some strengths that could be identified but these were outweighed by serious and significant weaknesses in critical aspects of the services performance," it added. 

 

In terms of leadership, the centre's manager was praised for trying to instil a more "nurturing ethos".

But the report added: "Although we recognised that the new manager intended to promote a more nurturing culture within the staff team and we observed some warm practice with some young people, we also heard from some staff that they were unhappy about changes to existing practices, which they stated had been made without consultation.

"We heard during some staff interviews that changes had caused some division in the team and although we found reference to this in some records, there seemed to be no evidence of how this was being addressed systematically by managers. We were concerned that some young people made reference to this during our visit, in terms of how it impacted their care.

"It would be helpful going forward to conduct a consultation with staff about their views."

A number of recommendations were made by inspectors to improve the service, including the creation of detailed care plans. 

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “Senior officers are extremely disappointed with the evaluations published in the inspection report and have already met with the Care Inspectorate to convey their concerns.

“In particular it has been raised with Care Inspectorate that within the inspection and report there is no account taken of the COVID19 pandemic and the challenges and impact this had not only on all services over the last 18 months, but in terms of sustaining care in our residential homes.

“The most important priority however, remains the care and nurture of the young people at Wellhouse and officers will continue to work and support staff to make sure the needs of our young people are met.”