Dundee day centre says aye-aye to pirate-themed party
Oakland Day Centre in Dundee hosted a week-long pirate-themed party in July, bringing together service users, families, staff, and community partners for five days of fun, creativity, celebration and buccaneering.
The idea for the themed celebration was first suggested by Kirsty Lynch, social care officer, following the success of the centre's Alice in Wonderland event last year. Kirsty is known for her creativity and ability to transform ideas into reality. Kirsty worked alongside colleagues to explore a range of possible themes.
However, the final decision was in the hands of the people who use the service. Service users voted for the pirate theme and were involved in every stage of planning and preparation. Together with staff, they helped create an impressive range of handmade props, including a life-size pirate ship, treasure chest, sea-themed decorations, and a "Drunken Parrot" bar.
Staff had some challenges, including sourcing materials, managing costs, coordinating multiple staff teams, and ensuring the event was accessible and enjoyable for individuals with varying levels of dementia and cognitive impairment. Significant time and effort were required to build props from scratch and transform the centre into a pirate-themed environment. However, these challenges were overcome through excellent teamwork, community support, and effective planning.
To ensure everyone could take part, celebrations were held over five days to accommodate different attendance patterns. Families were invited to join the festivities, creating meaningful opportunities for connection and shared memories. Family members also helped service users to fully participate in the celebrations by supporting them to dress up in pirate-themed outfits.
The week featured daily entertainment, including singers and puppet magic shows, alongside pirate-themed games, activities, and a special pirate-themed menu prepared by the kitchen team. Support from local businesses, families, friends, and staff helped provide materials and raffle prizes, as well as support from Dundee's Unicorn Ship, who kindly loaned pirate-themed decorations and games to give a more authentic feel. Raffle hampers were also created, successfully raising money for the centre's comfort fund.
The event showcased outstanding teamwork, creativity, and community spirit while providing valuable social, cognitive, and sensory stimulation for people. Most importantly, it brought joy, laughter, and unforgettable moments to everyone involved.
Kim McCallum, senior social care officer and ship captain, said: “I am so proud of the team for coming together and providing fun, laughter and wonderful memories for our service users. Their creativity is phenomenal and Oakland is very lucky to have such an amazing staff team.”
Bobby, 87, said: “It was marvellous, just super and I enjoyed dressing up.”
Isobel, 69, said: “Absolutely brilliant. Everything was first class. I attend the centre twice a week and it’s about time the staff got some recognition.”
Margaret, 91, said: “It was brilliant, she’s a very talented girl to make all those decorations. The boat was excellent and the singer was good.”
The promise in practice
Lochend: Reconnecting family, restoring relationships
In late 2024, Imagine Care opened their new house, Lochend. Lochend was created to provide two young people with additional support needs with a safe, loving and permanent home.
Lochend has been committed to keeping the promise, with the importance of family relationships highlighted during their Promise Assurance Inspection in August 2026.
Diane Cafferky, registered manager at Lochend, said: “At Lochend we are a family, and we want to ensure that does not just include the adults and young people but everyone that is important to the young people.”
Prior to a young person moving into Lochend, their parents were fully involved in the transition period. This included visiting the house and offering adaptations and ideas to help make Lochend feel like their home.
Throughout these discussions, the team became aware of the young person’s extended family, including two sets of grandparents, a younger sibling and previous care workers who had maintained a continued connection with the young person’s parents because of their love for them.
However, the team were also informed that these connections had stopped, although the reasoning for this was never fully understood.
Diane said: “From listening to the young person’s parents, their extended family was very important, with the family connections being full of love and fun, and I felt sad that these were not being promoted. As a team, we understood the importance of their family and promised to ensure these connections were promoted.”
Sammi Carmichael, assistant manager, said: “After a period of the young person settling into Lochend, we spoke with the parents and looked at introducing their grandad back into their life.”
Diane reflected that the meeting was emotional for both the young person and their grandad, but the love, fun and trust were there immediately.
“It was one of the highlights of working with the young person and the family.”
From there, the relationship went from strength to strength. All of the young person’s grandparents came to visit in their home, and they were able to share magical moments together, including activities such as going to the park and swimming.
Reintroducing the young person’s sibling was going to be more difficult due to their individual needs. However, with the full support of the Lochend team and the young person’s parents, this has also proven successful. The whole family has been able to enjoy activities together – something that had not happened for many years.
Diane went on to explain that, following the success of widening the young person’s world through her family connections, it was time to also allow the people who had cared for them previously to become part of her world again. This meant that the adults who had cared for them in a previous service were able to visit.
Sammi explained that a social story was used to show the young person photographs and explain the planned visit. The young person appeared to understand this and used words to indicate that they remembered the adults.
The visit went well, and the young person now has not only her family around her but also her friends and the people who have played an important role in her life.
Diane explained that the young person’s family often verbally give very positive feedback to the team at Lochend. However, during the recent Promise Assurance Inspection, they also shared further feedback about the difference that family engagement has made to their child and to them as a family.
The family shared: “Our child has so many positive experiences at Lochend but I think the most positive is how open they are to family engagement. Our child has many visits a week from us and their grandparents. They also have visits from their friends (previous carers) from a previous service. Lochend has ensured our child has a rich family life that former services restricted. They are now a much happier person for it and we as a family are delighted. All of our child’s visitors have a great relationship with all the staff and it feels like one big team working towards their best interests and making sure they meet their potential.”
The impact of this work was perhaps captured most powerfully in the words of the young person’s family: “You gave me my child back.”
Diane concluded: “This journey has shown Lochend the importance of listening to the people who know the young people best – their family. If we hadn’t listened to their voices and their advocacy, their world could have remained very small.
“Now the young person has their family around them. Their grandparents, siblings, friends and the people who cared for them previously. As their parents said, we are all ‘one big team’.”
For Lochend, this experience has reinforced that family relationships are not an addition to care – they are an essential part of a young person’s identity, belonging and wellbeing.
By listening to families, being open to possibilities and supporting relationships to grow, the young person’s world has become bigger, richer and more connected.
This is what keeping ‘the promise’ means at Lochend: ensuring that the people who matter most to a young person remain part of their life, their home and their future.
Colleagues march with Pride across Scotland
Colleagues from across the Care Inspectorate recently took part in Pride marches in Glasgow and Stirling, celebrating diversity, inclusion and allyship. Visible support at events such as Pride demonstrates our commitment to inclusive leadership, the protection of human rights and creating environments where everyone feels respected, accepted and included.
It was fantastic to be part of such positive events and we hope to return next year!
National review of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation
A review into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation has highlighted challenges with the way key organisations deal with the scale, prevalence, characteristics, and the threat of group-based harm.
The review, led by the Care Inspectorate and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE), looked at the issues of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation and child criminal exploitation in Scotland.
Care Home Improvement Programme (CHIP) applications now open
We are inviting care homes for adults and older people in the Dumfries and Galloway, and Scottish Borders areas to apply for the fourth cohort of the Care Home Improvement Programme (CHIP).
Participants will undertake an improvement project during the programme, to support improvement in an area that will make a positive impact in their care home. Participants will be allocated an improvement adviser who will provide dedicated support throughout the programme.
If you would like to apply for your care home to take part in the programme, please complete this short application form by the end of Thursday, 8 October 2026. Please submit only one application per care home.
For more information visit our website.
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