AN AYR care home for young people has been rated as "weak" by an industry watchdog.

The service at 28 Cunningham Place is provided by the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and provides care for up to seven young people.

It was inspected by the Care Inspectorate (CI) at the beginning of June, with the watchdog publishing a report of their findings earlier this week.

Inspectors spoke to a number of people during their visit, including some of the young people who use the service, their family members, and the staff at 28 Cunningham Place.

The service was then rated in one category - 'How well do we support children and young people's rights and wellbeing?'. This evaluation returned a rating of "weak", the second lowest possible score handed out be the CI.

The CI state that a weak rating is handed out when "strengths identified were outweighed by significant weaknesses" and that action is required to overcome these issues.

The report states: "Some young people expressed that they felt safe in the service, and all young people had access to independent advocacy.

"We found that there were risks to young people's safety, with some young people stating that they felt excluded at times.

"This compromised young people's quality of relationships with staff, the atmosphere within the home, and young people's emotional wellbeing."

Further findings added that staff were not consistently providing trauma-informed care and that there was a lack of therapeutic work undertaken with young people, and strategies used to support young people were absent or unclear.

The report continued: "There was a limited knowledge of children's rights and how to support young people's rights.

"Young people and staff raised concerns about the quality of the food at mealtimes, and we have asked the service to take this forward.

"Many staff did not feel supported by the managers and external managers, nor did they feel that they benefited from regular advice and guidance through effective supervision, team meetings, handovers, or a supportive team of peers.

"Important information regarding young people was not consistently recorded or shared, which could compromise young people's safety and management of risk.

"Whilst all staff were aware of whistleblowing procedures, they did not have confidence in these, further compromising young people's safety."

Some positive aspects were highlighted in terms of how the service had been developed since the last inspection took place there.

However, four areas requiring improvement were highlighted following the inspection, with 28 Cunningham Place being asked to meet these requirements by the end of next month in three instances, and one with "immediate effect".

Responding to the reports, the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership said they fully accept the need to improve the service at 28 Cunningham Place.

A spokesperson said: "The South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership are disappointed at the findings of the Care Inspection at Cunningham Place, Ayr.

"While we fully accept the need to improve in the areas identified, we know that this poor inspection report is inconsistent with the very positive inspection outcomes from the other children’s house in our locality, as well as our recent inspection for our fostering, adoption and continuing care service, which were rated as good.

"The quality of care we provide to our children and young people in our community is our top priority and as such we have already initiated a full improvement action plan to address all requirements and recommendations identified.

"South Ayrshire remains ambitious in delivering excellent care for our children and young people who require."