AN under-fire Scottish council criticised by the Accounts Commission for its culture of instability and mistrust has been dealt another blow.
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman has upheld a complaint against Argyll and Bute Council over the way it handled a child protection issue.
The ombudsman criticised the way the council dealt with a complaint about the case, stating that it was "inadequate".
It was also found that Rothesay Academy, on the Isle of Bute, had "unreasonably failed" to follow relevant procedures when dealing with the child protection issue.
The incident, which happened last year, involved a male member of the school's support staff who made inappropriate sexual comments to a 14-year-old female pupil.
The ombudsman's report states: "The executive director acknowledged that the school did not fully comply with the guidelines in dealing with the incident, primarily by failing to contact social work.
"It is clear that if a member of staff is alleged to be involved in child abuse then contact should be made with the director of education or the appropriate head of service. I have not seen evidence that this was done.
"ln addition, in my view it was a significant failing that the director of education or the appropriate head of service was not contacted, given the involvement of the male staff member. Therefore, I uphold this complaint."
The council now has to apologise to the family involved and, as a matter of urgency, assess whether there are any outstanding child protection issues arising from the case and inform the ombudsman of the outcome of the assessment.
A council spokeswoman said: "We take all child protection matters very seriously. We carried out our own investigation and upheld the complaint - a decision which was also confirmed by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman after referral.
"Action is already being taken to ensure that all the ombudsman's recommendations are fulfilled as quickly as possible."
In October, Scotland's local government auditor called for urgent action to improve the running of Argyll and Bute Council.
The Accounts Commission said local services could suffer if the quality of political leadership did not improve.
The strongly worded comments follow a damning report from Audit Scotland earlier in the month which highlighted political instability at the authority.
The leader of Argyll and Bute Council said both reports were a "wake-up call" and said improvements would be made.
A new administration made up of Liberal Democrat, Conservative and independent councillors took charge at the council in September.
The Accounts Commission said it was "seriously concerned" about substantial risks to Argyll and Bute Council caused by instability in its political leadership since last year's elections.
It said the quality of leadership of the council has been inadequate and the current political management arrangements were not fit for purpose
The role that the full council plays is unsustainable and progress in securing effective scrutiny has also been inadequate, it stated.
In its findings, the commission said: "The council's ability to set and maintain a clear strategic direction is at risk of being compromised and the commission is concerned that this will, in time, negatively affect the services that the council provides for the people of Argyll and Bute."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article