Inquiry into how boy absconded from care
AN investigation has been launched after a vulnerable schoolboy escaped through the window of a caravan during the night while under the care of two social workers.
The 11-year-old, who is in residential care, then walked around seven miles along a busy carriageway to his mother’s home in Ayrshire.
She is understood to have raised the alarm and contacted police and South Ayrshire Council’s social services on-call team.
The young boy had been staying at the Craig Tara caravan resort, near Ayr, with another child and two social workers on Friday night.
He is understood to have escaped through a window at around 2am and then walked around seven to eight miles along a busy carriageway to his mother’s home.
South Ayrshire Council said it was looking into the incident and working with staff to ensure it does not happen again and said it was fortunate that the boy was found “safe and well”.
The Care Inspectorate is also looking into the incident. A police spokesman said they were contacted in the early hours of Saturday morning by a woman who had concerns for her son’s welfare.
Paula Godfrey, Head of Children’s Health, Care and Criminal Justice Services, said: “The safety and wellbeing of children in our care is always our number one priority.
“While we cannot comment on the specifics or people involved in individual cases, we are looking into an incident over the weekend where a young person absconded from the care of social work staff. Fortunately, the young person is safe and well; however, this is something we take very seriously indeed and we are working with all those involved to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
A police spokesman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that a call was received in the early hours of Saturday, July 22 from a woman in Ayr who had concerns regarding welfare issues about her son who had returned home.
“The matter was resolved by the lady herself making contact with the appropriate Social Work Standby Team.”
A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: “We take all concerns brought to us seriously and look into them carefully. Where we uphold a complaint we publish the outcome of our investigation on our website and outline what must improve.
“Most care services improve with our support following a complaint. Anyone with a concern about a care service can contact us on 0345 600 9527, anonymously if necessary.
“However, where we are not satisfied that improvements are being made as needed following a complaint, we have a range of further powers available to us to enforce improvement.”