Staff at an Aberdeenshire after-school club “put children at risk” by paying so little attention to their medication that potentially life-saving pills for one youngster were more than a year out of date.
Inspectors from the Care Inspectorate visited Meldrum After School Klub (Mask), which is attached to the village primary school, at the end of October and their findings were published yesterday.
While the quality of the environment was marked as “good”, the quality of staffing was described as only “adequate” and both the care and support and management was criticised as “weak”.
Inspectors noted that the manager and staff were “not fully aware of information provided by some parents about their children’s medical conditions”.
The report added: “There were no detailed medication plans in place for some children to inform staff how to support and manage medication.
“There was no record of medication stored on the premises, and no audits of medication had been undertaken.
“As a result, we found that potentially life-saving medications were a year out of date for one child.
“These practices potentially put children at risk.”
Staff have been instructed to “take immediate action to review and update systems for managing medication”.
The Care Inspectorate also asked the centre to keep a closer record of children’s progress via “personal plans”.
Parent volunteers run the facility, and four new directors are being recruited to help ensure the smooth running of it in the future.
In praising the environment on offer in the school, the report described “children enjoying playing games together, such as making dens with blankets, playing
pool, dancing and demonstrating their gymnastic skills”.
