Ofsted criticises 'unjustified' isolation of children at residential home

A damning report by Ofsted raises concerns over the Shropshire children's home's treatment of children amid the Covid-19 pandemic as well as complaints about the "punitive" punishment of children.

• Analysis: Lessons for England from Scots’ review

• Related news: Education committee launches children’s homes investigation​

In response to confirmed cases managers forced young children to isolate and eat their meals in their bedrooms for 10 days, inspectors found.

“Documents indicate that staff were proactive in keeping young children in their bedrooms and children were provided with little activity to occupy them.

“As the children and staff were isolating together, there was no justification for such restrictions of movement for young children,” the report state.

The home provides residential care for up to five children from the age of eight who have suffered early childhood trauma.

Ofsted inspectors undertook a monitoring visit to the Cambian Childcare Limited run home after a member of staff made a complaint about the behaviour of a worker.

This centred on the worker pulling a girl across the floor by the child’s arms and then holding a bedroom door shut to prevent her from leaving her room.

Ofsted found that the home’s management and staff “failed to take swift and effective action” in response to the alleged treatment of the girl.

They also failed to follow their own policies and procedures in reporting concerns.

“This delay had the potential to place children at additional risk,” said Ofsted in its inspection report.

“The child involved also made a complaint in relation to the incident and there was a delay in reporting and responding to this. As a result, the member of staff continued to work with the child despite the serious allegation against them.”

Ofsted also raised concerns that further serious allegations were not reported to the inspectorate including an incident in which a member of staff “turned up to work her night shift intoxicated with alcohol”.

Inspectors also found that “although risk assessments to keep children and staff safe are in place, they are not up to date and fail to identify all risk-taking behaviours. As a result, clear strategies are not in place for staff to follow to ensure that children are safeguarded”.

Staff were found to be “punitive” in their response to challenging behaviour rather than therapeutic. On one occasion claims were made that a lightbulb was removed from a child’s room in response to her behaviour, the report states.

In addition, there are other accounts of “staff blocking doors with their body to keep children in their bedrooms”, it adds.

Management’s record and reporting was found to be poor, and the home did not even have an accurate roster of staff hours. A lack of management support for staff to meet the complex needs of children was also found.

Ofsted has issued the home with nine areas where improvements are needed and two compliance notices have also been issued in relation to child protection and leadership concerns.

A spokesperson for Cambian told CYP Now that the manager of the children's home had been suspended due to ongoing investigations into the allegations mentioned in the report.

They said: “Cambian’s Ofsted ratings for its children’s homes are 79 per cent Good/Outstanding which is in line with the national average, however Cambian have no Inadequate rated children’s homes (national average 2 per cent).  

“We have suspended the manager at this home and these allegations are subject to an investigation which as yet is not concluded, they did not meet the threshold for police involvement. We are committed to providing the highest standards of care across all our services and returning this home to the standard we expect.”