Children in Torbay at risk

Health services under fire

Protection for vulnerable children in Torbay is to be strengthened after a government report said too many children in the resort are being left at risk.

Health services came under fire for not managing unexplained injuries well enough, and being too ready to accept reasons given by carers and parents for bruises and injuries to their children.

A report has been published following a ‘targeted inspection’ of the bay’s services by bodies including Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission and the police. The inspection was carried out in November.

It said the bay’s services had been “more targeted and cohesive” since a partnership with Plymouth City Council ended in 2020, but changes in senior personnel had hampered progress in areas including children’s mental health.

The report highlights a number of areas of good practice, including ‘well-regarded’ family hubs in Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. It says progress has been made on the risks to missing children and links to exploitation.

But it says a “lack of professional curiosity” is “a more acute and systemic problem”within health services. There is not enough safeguarding oversight by both Devon Integrated Care Broad (ICB) and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.

The report goes on: “In particular, this relates to poor safeguarding decisions within the trust when the reasons given by parents or carers for bruises and injuries to children are accepted too readily, and without adequate reference to previous history or wider concerns.

“The safeguarding partnership has insufficient oversight of these failings.”

The report demands urgent action by the trust to check how effective its safeguarding practice is, and says: “Too many children remain in situations of risk and harm.”

It says variable quality of scrutiny and supervision leads to children being put in harm’s way, and of particular concern is the management of unexplained injuries to children.

Responding to the comments, Penny Smith, chief nursing officer at NHS Devon said: “We are developing an action plan to address the issues raised in the inspection report.

“Patient safety is paramount and we have already started to take immediate remedial action in a number of areas to reduce any risks that were flagged.

“The services that were inspected are provided by several local organisations including Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Children and Family Health Devon, Torbay Council, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Devon and Cornwall Police.  All partners are working very closely together, overseen by the ICB, to ensure we address issues and make the necessary improvements.

“Our full action plan will be published in May 2024.”

A spokesperson for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust added: “We accept the findings of the joint targeted area inspection and we are working with our partners to ensure children and young people are safe while in our care and get the support they need.

“A significant amount of work was undertaken last year to improve our children’s emergency department. We took immediate action to improve the areas identified in this report, including additional training and education for our people, and our children’s safeguarding team conducting a daily audit of every patient who has attended our emergency department.

“We continue to report progress against our action plan to our board for oversight and assurance.”

Torbay Council’s Liberal Democrat group leader Steve Darling (Barton with Watcombe) said he is pleased that the report was mostly positive, and highlighted significant improvements.

But he added: “The two areas of particular concern to me are some lack of professional curiosity seen in the health service where children appear with unexplained injuries, and the the unacceptable length of time children have to wait for support from child and adolescent mental health services when categorised by the service as low risk, which will come as no surprise to many.

“A significant challenge continues to be the financial under-investment in our health services that can only frustrate driving the positive changes we all want to see to support our children in Torbay.”