Doubt cast on Highland Council’s version of events over Avonlea children’s home closure and spark call for leader Raymond Bremner to resign
A wealth of fresh information has placed major question marks over Highland Council’s account of the closure of Avonlea Children’s Home in Wick.
Such is the weight of evidence that the leader of the opposition Alasdair Christie has said both the council leader and social care chairman “should consider their positions carefully”.
Last week, we exposed how the council was deceptive in its dealings with the public and the media – an allegation the local authority denies.
Our reports, based on hundreds of emails accessed by five campaigning councillors via freedom of information, cast severe doubt on the council’s version of events.
AVONLEA CLOSURE:
• The exclusive inside story on Highland Council’s handling of the troubled children’s care home
• Highland Council denies being ‘deceptive’ over the closure of Avonlea children’s home
• Five Caithness councillors issue damning verdict on Highland Council officials over Avonlea
Liberal Democrat councillors Jan McEwan, Ron Gunn and Struan Mackie, and Highland Independents M atthew Reiss and Andrew Jarvie all agree that they were “at no point furnished with complete information”.
Leader of the LibDem opposition Cllr Alasdair Christie said: “I think that it is all very sad when councillors have to resort to Freedom of Information requests to get the sort of information that they really should already have.
“Having seen the emails myself, I think that the council leader and the chair of the health, social care and wellbeing committee should consider their positions carefully.”
The emails shine a light on the actions of council leader Raymond Bremner and Cllr David Fraser, the chairman of the health, social care and wellbeing committee.
Not only that but they rubbish claims made by the council and its former chief executive Donna Manson made as recently as last week.
The crux is when the final closure decision was made – after a Care Inspectorate report in July, 2022, or after it issued an enforcement notice on November 29, 2022.
In July, the Care Inspectorate rated Avonlea “unsatisfactory” – the worst rating available – and in late August the council confirmed it would close.
In early September 2022, the council changed tack by saying the facility was not “formally closing” and instead officials would “temporarily vacate” it.
The Care Inspectorate issued an enforcement notice on November 29 and the council cites this as the pretext for closure in December 2022.
Responding to questions from the Groat, the council and its former chief executive both insisted last week that the decision came after the November 29 enforcement notice.
That flatly contradicts the council’s own head of social work services and a council compiled timeline released as part of a freedom of information request.
And nor does it tally with information held by the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO), which is the final stage for public services complaints.
The timeline compiled by the council can be read below:
A timeline compiled by the council itself supports unequivocally that the decision to close Avonlea was taken at a high level meeting in July 2022.
Attended by then chief executive Donna Manson, the then head of children’s services Margaret McIntyre and the council leader Raymond Bremner, here is what it said:
“July 2022 – A meeting was held with the then chief executive, the leader of the council, and the head of children’s services. Given the long-standing systemic failures and the seriousness of the situation, the decision to proceed with a planned closure of Avonlea was agreed. The priority was to carefully transition children in Avonlea. There were also young adults in an attached small house, Gable, who also required supported transitions.”
So what happened with the September reversal to “temporarily vacate” the care home? The same council timeline holds the answer – here is what it said:
“Sep 2022 – In the height of media attention, complaints, different agendas and pressures, regrettably, there was some confusion with regards the decision to close Avonlea.
“A statement was released to the press suggesting temporary closure. It remains unclear where this confusion originates but it was during a time when the head of service was on leave.
“It was recognised that clarity of communication was essential that there was no change to the planned closure.”
Last week the council said this: “By November, the Care Inspectorate had given two weeks’ notice of its intention to cancel registration unless there was a significant improvement in service provision, at which point the decision was made to move to formal closure.”
Yet the SPSO has the following in its records: “On 26 July 2022 the council informed C that as a result of the inspection, they had decided to close the unit [Avonlea]”.
That demonstrates that the July Care Inspectorate report was the trigger for the council to react in an apparently well-intentioned move to protect service-users.
Yet five Caithness representatives, Cllrs McEwan, Gunn, Mackie, Reiss and Jarvie, had to wait to read about the closure in the Groat at the end of August – no one told them.
Cllr Reiss emailed Cllr Bremner on August 27 to say: “I think we must see the whole truth of this. The council, at the time of the ‘damning’ report, came out quite robustly defending the staff.”
The next day Cllr Bremner “in confidence” passed that on to Margaret McIntyre, the head of social work services, and the former chief executive Donna Manson.
All five Caithness councillors were unanimous in saying Cllr Bremner told them nothing about the closure while passing emails from councillor colleagues to officials.
Nor did any council officials and nor did the chairman of the health, social care and wellbeing committee, Cllr David Fraser, or the vice chair, Cllr Muriel Cockburn.
A private briefing for local members did take place on August 31, 2022, after Cllr Ron Gunn said he wanted to call a special meeting on the issue of Avonlea.
However, they were left in a position of knowing less than news reporters covering the story at the Groat, who were told by a reliable source what was happening inside the home.
All five councillors see that as seriously problematic because among the most important functions of a councillor is to scrutinise decisions, even confidential ones.
Perhaps the most important part of that scrutiny are on decisions taken by officials, which even if confidential are still subject to oversight by elected members.
That is important because it maintains the fundamental democratic connection with voters, but it relies totally on the accessibility of information.
And the FOIs that they submitted and which these reports are based on took eight months to be returned – which is around ten times longer than allowed by law.
The ex-head of social work services, Ms McIntyre, was clear that it is vital that “elected members hold services accountable and have a role to scrutinise the quality and standards of care”.
We know that because that is what she told Cllr Bremner when he asked her for a media line that “would be suitable from a local councillor perspective”.
She continued: “Members take this responsibility seriously and expect services provided in Highland to be good or better, aiming for excellence in care services.
“If services are not achieving this standard, members expect officers to give due consideration to all the necessary supports, actions and options to ensure they secure strong outcomes for children.
“Elected members shall continue to scrutinise policy, strategy and improvements in residential care and are aware of the sensitive process outlined below in respect of Avonlea Children’s House.”
Cllr Reiss was asked if he feels he has been impeded in doing his job as an elected member? Here is what he said:
“Yes, basically by deception via briefings, press releases, answers in Full Council and simple silence from those who knew the truth since July 2022.”
Cllr Mackie, answering the same question, said: “The fact that an FOI has had to be submitted is the clearest indication that scrutiny and due process has failed.
“During this period, there were naked attempts to stifle scrutiny and limit the influence and scope of elected members’ work, from Covid Gold command through to the Avonlea decision.”
Cllr Gunn said this: “The FOIs revealed when and who took the decision to close the home. They also revealed that officials taking the decision were reminded that local members should be consulted over the closure, of course this did not happen”.
And Cllr McEwan said: “It is my opinion that the council did not consult with the local members and weren’t open and transparent, with either the local members or the public.”
Finally, Cllr Jarvie said: “A children’s home was closed just two weeks before Christmas, we were promised it would not… I have never come across an act so cruel and misleading.”
Attempts to understand what happened were also “stymied” with the help of the same officials dealing with the closure, but this time it also affected those in the know.
For the full council meeting on May 9 last year, Cllr McEwan – backed by Cllrs Gunn, Reiss, Grafton, Robertson, Graham, and MacCallum – submitted a motion. In it she called for “a full review over the closure of the Avonlea Children’s facilities” and asked if “senior officers were open and transparent with local councillors”.
This put the chairman of the health, social care and wellbeing committee, Cllr David Fraser, in the firing line as he would have to respond – or rather an official largely did.
Fiona Duncan, the then executive chief officer for health and social care and the chief social work officer, drafted a response that was passed around senior councillors.
Instead of a review there would be a members’ workshop “to describe the changing picture in Highland and improve understanding of the Family First strategy”.
But it was only on the next day that it occurred to Cllr Fraser – i.e. not before voting the move for a review – that he wrote to Ms Duncan asking for Avonlea information.
This is what he wrote to Ms Duncan:
“Can you ask someone to put together a brief outline of Avonlea, it should cover (briefly) Care Inspectorate inspections (and grades 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), actions taken by Highland Council so we bring out the 2022 events clearly, briefings to local members if we have that (dates /key messages) inc after the closure, be good if we can bring out why things changed after we said it wouldn’t close.
“Reasons why we would not re-open – six bed unit, too big, anything else? Depending on what it shows we can decide if I need to say anything at HSCW next week.”
The response from Ms Duncan was to ask for a face-to-face meeting, and in an email to Ms McIntyre she said:
“To make you aware. I hope to meet David later to discuss in more detail and put him off below. However, we probably do need a timeline of events”.
The need for a timeline is demonstrated in this report as it appears to be the one Ms Duncan ordered to be drawn up.
