Highland Council denies being ‘deceptive’ over the closure of Avonlea children’s home after the Groat challenged it over its internal communications compared to what emerged publicly
This is Highland Council’s response to events surrounding the closure of Avonlea Children’s Home in Wick.
The full story: AVONLEA CLOSURE: The exclusive inside story of Highland Council’s handling of the troubled children’s care home
Highland Council has denied it was being “deceptive” after the Groat challenged the local authority on the contents of its internal Avonlea communications compared to what emerged publicly.
In the previous two pages we revealed a series of emails that indicate how events unfolded while much information, though known locally in Caithness, was not confirmed publicly by the council.
The council insists that its decisions were informed by factors varying from it being “inappropriate” to comment on matters regarding vulnerable young people and staff, to being based on national guidance.
The local authority refused to respond to some of the most serious points because they were made by people no longer working at the council and it “does not comment on statements made by previous employees”.
A spokeswoman said “the council’s media comments were not ‘deceptive’” and that the emails the Groat refers to “already provide the reason why the public line provided was not specific about closure”.
The reason for that was “a process underway to engage with all the children and staff directly affected and it would have been ‘inappropriate to comment further at this stage’. This would have been the case even to communicate that there was an intention to vacate”.
The “public line” came from Margaret McIntyre who, while privately admitting in July that “it is intended to close the house”, publicly said the council is “considering and planning a possible range of options for Avonlea Children’s House”.
We did not get an answer to the question whether or not it is the council’s view that local groups asking questions about decisions was “local communities challenging inappropriately” as former chief executive Donna Manson is a “previous employee”.
However, the Groat contacted Donna Manson via Devon Council, where she is now chief executive. The former Highland Council chief executive explained how as the “Corporate Parent”, it is the collective responsibility of the council, elected members, employees, and partner agencies, to provide the best possible care and safeguarding for the looked-after children.
She said: “Councils have statutory responsibilities for children in their care and take these extremely seriously.
“Attempts were made to make improvements at Avonlea after it received a statutory improvement notice, but after serious concerns remained, and the Care Inspectorate gave two weeks’ notice that it intended to cancel Avonlea’s registration, the closure was deemed absolutely necessary.”
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We asked if the council accepts that on multiple occasions between July and December its approach to issuing information about Avonlea misled the public, elected members and the media and so seriously undermines trust?
The spokeswoman said: “As stated in the email [Ms McIntyre’s] quoted, it would have been inappropriate to issue a public statement ahead of engaging with all the children and staff directly affected.”
About the council announcing it would close Avonlea in August before changing that to “temporarily vacated” in September before finally closing the home in December, the spokeswoman said emails already explain that.
The spokeswoman said: “There is a difference between taking steps to vacate and moving to formal closure. This distinction was made in the emails you have from Fiona Duncan dated 2 September 2022.
“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.”
• ‘No change of plan with a carefully managed closure’
Invited to add anything more, Highland Council said: “The circumstances surrounding the move towards closure of Avonlea were reported and debated at the Highland Council meeting in December 2022 when considering the annual report of the chief social work officer.”
The spokeswoman went on to quote chief social work officer Fiona Duncan speaking at that meeting where she offered an explanation of what happened, but there appear to be discrepancies.
In the following statement if the “first one” means the Care Inspectorate report of 2021, the timeline does not agree with the contents of the emails seen by the Groat.
Closure was openly discussed on November 15, including with Ms Duncan, well after the council said it was not closing the facility – while the enforcement notice she claims triggered the final decision to shut the home arrived on November 29.
Ms Duncan said: “…Avonlea was quite specific in terms of the north. We got an inspection report. The first one, which was basically saying ‘You need to do X, Y and Z.’ They then came back in and the situation was worse than when they first came in.
“As a result of that, that’s when it’s stated, now this is where the confusion came in, it was that the house was closing. Now again in other areas that decision is often not run past elected members.
“So a statement went out saying the house was closing and then it was a statement saying actually that has to be run past elected members so that is where that confusion came in.
“However, the Care Inspectorate have basically issued us with an enforcement notice for Avonlea which means it will be closing.
“So that’s where we are with Avonlea. Apologies to anyone through the confusion. It wasn’t done deliberately. It was actually just a point of process more than anything and certainly we have learned from that”.
