COMMON THREAD GROUP DUTY OF CANDOUR REPORT 2020/2021

COMMON THREAD GROUP
DUTY OF CANDOUR REPORT 2020/2021

INTRODUCTION
The new Duty of Candour Procedure (Scotland) Regulations 2018 came into effect
on 1 April 2018. It affects all health, social work and care services except
childminders. It means that services must take specific steps to carry out their duty of
candour when a serious adverse event happens. They will need to let the people
affected know, offer to meet with them, and apologise. This is an important part of
being open with people who experience care, and also learning from things that go
wrong.
All health and social care services in Scotland have a duty of candour. This is a legal
requirement which means that when unintended or unexpected events happen that
result in death or harm as defined in the Act, the people affected understand what
has happened, receive an apology, and that organisations learn how to improve for
the future.
An important part of this duty is that we provide an annual report about how the duty
of candour is implemented in our services. This report describes how Common Thread
Group has operated duty of candour between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
Common Thread hopes you find this report useful, however if you have any further
questions on organisational duty of candour please contact
mario.cassani@ctgsecure.com.

ABOUT COMMON THREAD
Common Thread is a company committed to excellence and seriously
improving opportunities for children in the care system. We are resolute
in challenging unacceptable practice and perceptions.

OUR MISSION

Our Mission is to lead in the
    creation and provision of
    innovative healing
    environments for children
    and young people who
    have been hurt by trauma,
    abuse and neglect.

    OUR VALUES AND
    BEHAVIOURS
    All employees of and suppliers to Common Thread are required to sign
    up to our Core Values and Behaviours:

    Values:

•   Young People First – In All We Do
•   Creativity and Positivity –
    Promote, Identify and Focus on
    in Ourselves and Others
•   Leaders – In Our Areas of
    Expertise and Capability
•   Operating Sustainably and
    Ethically – Ensuring Viable,
    Responsible Citizenship
•   Integrity and Honesty – In How
    We Conduct Ourselves

    Behaviours:

•   Demonstrates and Encourages Integrity and Honesty
•   Learns through Creative Opportunities, Experience and Reflection
•   Chooses and Promotes Sustainable and Ethical Practice
•   Driven by Professional and Personal Excellence and Celebrates
    Success
•   Promotes Mutual Respect and Confidence
•   Delivers and Operates with Tenacity and Courage
•   Interacts with Openness and Suspends Judgement

OUR HISTORY
We are often asked where the
name Common Thread came
from. Sometimes we have to ask
ourselves that question! It
fundamentally came down to
people, we believed that the
common thread through any
organisation could be narrowed to
the people that are involved with
it. In this case we decided that the
young people would always be
considered as the primary focus
but of course they are young “people” our common thread is simply
put people. We were founded in 2004 by Julie Joseph, initially with two
houses. Our initial intent was to develop good practice and to
broadcast that good practice to as many organisations as we could.

We have grown our company organically as people who displayed
the skills to help that growth came to us. The expansion of our our
footprint into the central belt and Highlands of Scotland was very
carefully considered and has been an outstanding success to date.
When we opened our first school (Merrick) near Dumfries in 2009 it was
the culmination of a dream for Julie who had a clear vision and belief
that we could not provide outstanding childcare without the
educational element being available internally. Our school has been
another outstanding success for Common Thread with the addition of
a further 2 schools based in Denny and Kilmarnock bringing the current
total to 3. Our Dumfries school base moved to new premises in 2015 to
form the Common Thread Education and Training Centre.

Our primary intent remains excellent care and education for the young
people that come to stay with us.

DUTY OF CANDOUR INCIDENTS
Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, there were three incidents where the duty
of candour applied. These are unintended or unexpected incidents that result in
death or harm as defined in the Act, and do not relate directly to the natural course
of someone’s illness or underlying condition.
Common Thread Group identified three Duty of Candour relatable incidents through
our Incident Review process. Though Incidents were reported and Incident reviews
were carried out leading to updates to policy and Risk assessments. These events
include a wider range of outcomes than those defined in the duty of candour
legislation as we also include adverse events that did not result in significant harm but
had the potential to cause significant harm.
Common Thread Group identifies through the debrief process if there are factors that
may have caused or contributed to the event, which helps to identify duty of
candour incidents.

 Type of Unexpected or Unintended Incident              Number of Times This Happened
 (not related to the natural course of
 someone’s illness or underlying condition)
 The death of the person                                                         0
 Permanent lessening of bodily, sensory, motor,                                  0
 physiologic or intellectual functions
 A person’s treatment increased                                                  0
 The structure of a person’s body changed                                        0
 A person’s life expectancy shortened                                            0
 A person’s sensory, motor or intellectual functions                             0
 were impaired for 28 days or more
 A person experienced pain or psychological harm                                 2
 for 28 days or more
 A person needed health treatment in order to                                    1
 prevent them dying
 A person needed health treatment in order to                                    0
 prevent other injuries as listed above
 TOTAL                                                                           0

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

As Common Thread Group had 3 incidents where duty of candour applied there has
been direct lessons learned. The critical incident enquiry and review process has led
to an improvement in our Recruitment and training processes, A focus on the
digitization, transparency and availability of documentation. A focus on reflective
practice and specific training around dangerous work practice. We at Common
Thread are continually reviewing our practices and procedures based on our
organizational learning.

INTERNAL CONTROLS
Policies and Procedures
Common Thread Group has produced a “Duty of Candour” policy which has been
made available to all staff via the intranet. The policy (document:
CTPP_Duty_of_Candor_240120) is currently sitting at revision 2.00 and was approved
on 24/01/2020 This policy is reviewed and updated in line with the internal document
control procedures.
In addition, two leaflets have been printed and circulated to all staff and
stakeholders:
• Organisational Duty Of Candour In Scotland: What Happens When Things Go
Wrong
• Organisational Duty Of Candour In Scotland: What It Means For You

Learning and Development

Common Thread Group has adopted the Duty of Candour e-learning module,
produced in partnership between NHS Education for Scotland, The Scottish Social
Services Council, The Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. The
training module takes about an hour to complete and this has been offered to all
managers and care staff within the organisation. Over the past year, 111 staff have
completed this training.

REPORTING PROCEDURES
As part of an update to The Care Inspectorate’s E-
Forms reporting system Common Thread Group must
confirm, for each notification, if duty of candour was
triggered. The internal procedures around notifications
have been updated to include these requirements.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This is the Second year of the duty of candour being in
operation and it has been a year of learning and
refining for Common Thread Group’s existing processes
to include the duty of candour outcomes.

As required, we have produced this report and placed
it on our website. If you would like more information
about this report, please contact:
mario.cassani@ctgsecure.com.