A SOCIAL work task force has been drafted in to help a struggling autism service in the Borders.

Major failings were identified at Autism Initiatives during a recent inspection by the Government's watchdog body.

And staff from the the Scottish Borders Learning Disability Service are now sitting in on the residential and outreach services provided by the charity.

A spokesperson for Scottish Borders Council and NHS Borders told the Border Telegraph: "Following notification by the Care Inspectorate that their latest inspection of the two services provided by Autism Initiatives contains a number of requirements that need to be addressed urgently, we can confirm that we will be working with the Chief Executive and his staff to monitor the service being provided and ensure that an action plan is developed."

Autism Initiatives, which operates a residential service near St Boswells and an outreach programme from Galashiels, was branded 'weak' across the board by inspectors.

The spokesperson added: “Staff from the joint Scottish Borders Learning Disability Service are now visiting on a daily basis to provide advice and support for Autism Initiative staff and meetings will be held with all professionals involved in the delivery of the service so that they are fully involved in implementation of the action plan.

“We are also speaking with clients and their families to reassure them of the plans that are being put in place to support the service.”

Autism Initiatives was slammed by the experts following their summer inspection.

As well as highlighting fresh problems they found that all seven improvement requirements from the pervious year's visit had not been met.

The highly-critical Care Inspectorate report, which was published last week, stated: "We concluded that there was a clear lack of effective management, oversight and audit systems to monitor the effectiveness and quality in all areas of the service provided - for example, support plans/risk assessments, care reviews, staff training, supervision, accidents and incidents, post incident reviews.

"Had these been monitored and audited, the service may have identified the issues and areas for improvement we have found during this inspection.

"Some staff told us that they felt unsafe when supporting service users who may present physical behaviours and felt that they needed more specialized training.

"Some staff told us that they felt morale was low, they felt undervalued and under pressure to pick up extra shifts due to being understaffed."

Inspectors made a total of five visits to the service throughout the summer.

Autism Initiatives supports six residents at its Longnewton premises near St Boswells.

It also offers outreach support and care in the community to adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism from its offices in Galashiels.

The quality of care was classed as 'weak', as was the standard of staffing and the quality of management and leadership.

And inspectors witnessed first-hand the problems which have plagued the service.

The report continued: "We identified a serious concern during our inspection that we considered the service needed to take action on immediately.

"We brought this matter to the attention of the service immediately, and through a letter outlining our concerns detailing the action we needed them to take.

"From speaking with relevant professionals and looking at completed incident reports, we found examples of incidents that we considered should have been referred through Adult Support and Protection procedures."

The Care Inspectorate has issued Autism Initiatives with a lengthy list of improvement requirements and recommendations to be complied with before the end of this month.

Autism Initiatives hadn't returned our phone calls by the time we went to press.