Oasis launches new website for secure school
Fiona Simpson
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
New details of England’s first secure school have been revealed on a website launched by Oasis Charitable Trust which will run the provision.
The secure academy is set to open on the site of Medway secure training centre in late 2023, three years later than planned, after being hit by a series of delays.
It will be known as Oasis Restore, the website states, and will be funded by the Ministry of Justice and NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) through a funding agreement as opposed to a commercial contract.
Oasis Restore will be dual registered as a 16-19 academy and secure children’s home, and will be inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, according to the website. The first inspection is expected to take place within three years of the setting opening.
The secure school will have capacity for a maximum of 49 children aged 12 to 18 who are sentenced or remanded to custody by the courts.
Three senior leaders have already been recruited to develop the design of Oasis Restore:
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Andrew Willetts has been named principal director of Oasis Restore.
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Consultant clinical psychologist Celia Sadie will take on the role of director of care and wellbeing.
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Cara Beckett has been named as director of leading at enrichment at Oasis Restore following six years as a curriculum leader with Oasis.
“Oasis Restore’s senior leadership team are experts in their field, are champions of divergent thinking, are innovative, and are committed to providing psychologically informed, developmentally appropriate models of support and education for children,” the website states, noting that recruitment for other roles in the school will be announced ahead of its opening in 2023.
Legislation to allow charitable trusts to run secure academies was granted royal assent in May as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.
A critical National Audit Office report, published in March, into the setting up of the secure school said that delays had been caused by spiralling costs after its design had to be revised. While its original cost was £4.9m, this has since increased to £36.5m.
This report was published amid a warning from the Ministry of Justice and the Prison and Probation Service that the number of children in custody is set to double within the next two years, prompting ministers to consider reopening Rainsbrook STC, which was also closed due to safety concerns.
