Trust delayed man’s application for kinship of grandchildren

Recommendations

We believed the man was treated unfairly by the Belfast Trust, so we asked it to:

• Apologise to him for its failure to maintain records of its initial checks, and for taking so long to request a full criminal record check.

We want to make sure something similar doesn't happen again, so we asked the Trust to:

• Ask the staff involved to reflect on the case, and discuss the findings of this report at their next appraisal. 
• Remind relevant staff of the importance of keeping proper and appropriate records.
• Undertake an audit of conversations between PSNI and Social Workers to check that written consent is obtained in line with its Information Sharing Agreement.
• Put an Action Plan in place to incorporate these recommendations and provide us with an update within six months of the date of this report. The action plan should be supported by evidence to confirm that appropriate action has been taken (including, where appropriate, records of any relevant meetings, training records and/or self-declaration forms which indicate that staff have read and understood any related policies). 
• Address any identified trends or shortcomings and provide us with an update of findings and corrective actions as appropriate.